V after v after v— birds scale the skyline in the morning, but how many at night? Immigrants pray every day for the right door to open beside their children. See, someone places three in the middle of a road. Nobody
is looking. How many at night? Boys and girls disappear through doors in twos. Night birds, clap without thought, besides themselves. Besides, parents grow old. How many of those children return; you were one who walked—
made it through. Though, now you fall in your own office, require my hands to right yourself. And often out-of-breath— fumble when you recount those old doors like earlier chapters in a manual. In a latter chapter,
you have keys to give me, but forget where they— forget who you— tear your collar to v, before I try.
Dr. Dolapo Demuren (he/him) is a Nigerian-American writer from the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. He received his B.A. in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University, M.F.A from Columbia University and Ed.D from the University of Southern California. He is a 2025 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship Winner for his chapbook American Love Sonnets. His honors include a fellowship from the Cave Canem Foundation and The Academy for Teachers, as well as scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and nominations for the Pushcart Prize. His poems and other writings are featured or forthcoming in the Adroit Journal, Poet Lore, Poetry London, Prairie Schooner, The Maine Review, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland College Park, where he is currently the associate director of the Jiménez-Porter Writers' House.
