I think these “Emily as…” poems work best when they're ornery and domestic, when they want so loudly that the echoes bounce off the walls of our house and our full life together. Marriage is hard, but it's hysterically funny. Sex is wonderful, but it's silly and rushed sometimes when you have children. The complexities of a life can fade away, and it's just two people singing the wrong words to an old song. It can be lovely and true amidst a climate that is anything but those things.
Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty-three full-length poetry collections, most recently So Much More (Small Harbor Publishing, November 2024). He is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal.