Emily as a Path, Not an Escape

by Darren C. Demaree

 

I learned to sleep

next to Emily

without digging

 

my fingers into

her ribs. It took

me four years

 

of sobriety to get

there. Now,

we rest as the ocean

 

rests. There

is blood sometimes,

but by the time

 

we find bubbles

the color is swallowed

by the color.

 

The salt is everywhere.

She is with the salt.

I wake up

 

& I can taste

my path.

It’s terrifying-

 

ly simple.

I am alive in

this simplicity.

 

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Darren C. Demaree is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently “Two Towns Over”, which was selected the winner of the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House 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.