Emily as a Play of Light
Possessed by the porch
she’s sitting on, discovered linear
by Ohio’s version
of the sun, Emily is asleep
in the chair she bought
that matches her eyes
when they’re open.
Some women can wear
an entire house.
Some women are a home.
She’d look good regardless,
but that goes and keeps going.
Emily as She Asks Me Only One Question
She knows, but she wants
to know more
about why
when I sketch her
naked she is always
dunking a basketball
& all I can tell her she can
do absolutely anything
when she’s naked.
Emily as We Deceive Mankind
Essence is feathers.
The gap between us
& everyone else
is worth exploring
if what you want
is us hiding from you.
This is our special.
The poems are gravity.
Essence is feathers.
Emily as “Meteorites” by Italo Calvino
Set off by sea
& space’s intent,
I arrive at her
no matter what
direction I go.
It makes sense
if you refuse
to allow any
other truths.
Emily as a Warm Place in Cold Weather
Emily’s thigh
is the only equator
Ohio knows.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-five full-length poetry collections, most recently “Got There: Poems on Vanishing”, (April Gloaming Publishing, April 2026). He is the recipient of a Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.
