EMILY AS THE COMMUNITY POOL WHEN IT RAINS
There are reasons
the tide waits
for the storm.
There are reasons
why I am the only one
on the lounge chair
when Emily gets going.
I know the lightning
goes looking.
I so badly want
to be found by her
that any
of summer’s metaphors
will do. Besides
a lifeguard gets chased
& Emily
& I, we can
really have some fun.
EMILY AS A WOODCUT
There are backroads
to every relationship.
Emily
& I know where
all of the abandoned
garages are
& we keep
our relationship
in each of them.
We’re spread
all over Ohio.
Only she knows
which ones
have electricity.
Only I know
exactly which
design she might be
craving today.
Good lord, I love
the sound
those saws make.
EMILY AS I HOLD THE TANGERINE
I have been the bride
when Emily wanted me
to be the bride.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of eleven poetry collections, most recently Emily As Sometimes the Forest Wants the Fire, which will be published in June of 2019 by Harpoon Books. He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louis Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. 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.
