EMILY AS LOVE AND THE AGONY
I own a castle
puzzle
that only Emily
can finish.
I get lost
in the blues
on the edge
of the river.
There is no love
in a landscape
& yet, she
is steady,
tender with
each of the two
thousand pieces.
I think, often,
about stealing
a bit of turret
to keep in my sock
drawer. I want
the hunt
she doesn’t need.
If there were a dog
racing across
all that land
I would be happier.
I would name it.
Darren C. Demaree’s 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. He is the author of fourteen poetry collections, most recently Unfinished Murder Ballads (Backlash Press, 2020). He is the Editor in Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry.