Emily as the Leak from the Wall
Darren Demaree
I know actual art
is jasmine winding
past where jasmine
has ever risen before,
but I was born
in a basement
& the blooms there
could only rise
as cracks. I put
my lips to what
was lovely. I loved
the cement
that shattered.
A large part of me
hates the carpet
that finishes
a bottom floor.
A February hymn,
like all the hymns
of Ohio, I sing
of Emily
because she refuses
to paint over
my dank nature.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of thirteen poetry collections, most recently “So Clearly Beautiful”, (November 2019, Adelaide Books). He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louis Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. 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.