Emily as the Silverness Gains a Ripple
Darren C. Demaree
I was living
so the river could
pause the palms
of Ohio, so they could
be raised before
the thaw of winter
& we could do
some real damage
with those veins.
Emily told me
I was going too far.
We have no sea,
I told her. We have
no mountains, either
& if we are to make
ourselves more
than a demonstration
of the valleys,
we will need to do
something. Emily,
for her part,
got naked, walked
across the Scioto
& I don’t remember
what happened next,
but I know that I was
a witness to something.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of five poetry collections, most recently “The Nineteen Steps Between Us” (2016, After the Pause Press). 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.