EMILY AS NO WORD & NO TENDERNESS

Marriage is a terrible calm

that asks you to believe

in the valley

when you’ve been chased

down the mountain

by an eruption.  I can see

nothing from down here.

I feel no wind.  I sing

for Emily because she

ran as fast I did.  We arrived

together.  If we are willing

to burn our feet together

then maybe we will make it

to the new, black soil.

I suppose we wouldn’t have

to believe such things,

but our hearts have raced us

into this corner of belief. 

Darren C. Demaree writes: “My poems have appeared, or are scheduled to appear in numerous magazines/journals, including Hotel Amerika, Diode, North American Review, New Letters, Diagram, and the Colorado Review.

I am the author of thirteen poetry collections, most recently 'So Clearly Beautiful' (November 2019, Adelaide Books). I am the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology and Ovenbird Poetry.

I am currently living and writing in Columbus, Ohio with my wife and children.”