Darren Demaree

Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-two poetry collections, most recently “blue and blue and blue”, (Fernwood Press, July 2024). 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 the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently working in the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.

Emily as Ranks of Armoured and Armed Angels by Guariento di Arpo

Let’s make one figure
into a hundred
& be trampled

by the weight
of our belief
that Emily

does not exist
in number
or in measuring,

but only in how
low I lay down
for her intent

to tender me
& then carry me
within her cause.

Emily as Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey by Lucas Cranach

Among the ornaments
& healthily pink,
when I see Emily

wearing a hat
& nothing else
I know

these ferocious times
will have to wait,
that all those stinging

moments of modern
orneriness are nothing
compared to whomever

she’s decided to be
for the next good
thirty minutes.