EMILY AS DEEP NIGHT
Reclined in the back
of a borrowed black
& gold truck, Emily
& I are not lost
& we cannot be found
& the short, metal valley
we’ve claimed as shelter
in the unending Ohio
night, is just enough
cover to leave fingerprints
all over the epic.
We are the evidence.
EMILY AS SHE’S NEVER BEEN MINE
Do you think
that Emily
isn’t choosing
these words?
She dressed
as fire
for Halloween
& now all
I can think
about is Emily
as fire
& she knows
that. I am
simple. She
knows that.
I am the act
of typing
& I am hers
& she is putting
together one hell
of a mythology.
EMILY AS THE ROOTS REMEMBER THE BLACK DIRT
I’ve had sex with Emily.
I am not, currently,
having sex with Emily.
This terrible withering
has me longing to be
fed by her existence.
I need to learn to
appreciate the sun without
feeling like I must
take over the garden.
Darren C. Demaree
Darren C. Demaree is the author of six poetry collections, most recently "Many Full Hands Applauding Inelegantly" (2016, 8th House Publishing), and the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry. His poems have appeared, or are scheduled to appear, in numerous magazines/journals, including the South Dakota Review, Meridian, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review. He is currently living and writing in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.