Emily As A River Dove Calls

I watched the nuclear plants
from the baptism-curve
in the river, where the water

has developed enough fear
to slow down, to drag itself
& I watched those quiet, white

towers impose themselves
against the contrast of the doves.
I saw Emily get in the river

& I asked her what she might be
doing. I’m going under the water
she said. I want to place

my knuckles into the silt, she said.
She always has the answers,
especially to the questions

I am too afraid to ask out loud
& when she burst up through
the calm bend, she wasn’t smiling,

but she was determined enough
to go back down again. Admiring
her, I lost track of where I was.

 

Darren Demaree is the author of As We Refer To Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), The Pony Governor (2015, After the Pause Press), and Not For Art Nor Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the Managing Editor of the Best of the Net Anthology.

Next

Return to Table of Contents

Advertisement