These calamities are lingering in my blood like they are already regrets, and yet I am the one that is angry all of the time. My wife has become a professional wrestler so that nobody questions why she absolutely must hit me in the back with a folding chair from time to time. This is the new normal, which in the context of my history, appears to be the destruction of my calm and beautiful heart.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly (2016, 8th House Publishing). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.