Emily as I Prepare the Meal-kit Harissa-Roasted Chickpea Bowls

The lion follows
what the lion wants.
I cook from the pictured sheet

Emily chooses.
I measure what I can.
I tip quickly

what my mood allows.
We haven’t, none of us,
left the house

in six days, so I figured
we needed a smell
that could chase us.

We live in
& out of clouds now. Our teeth
have begun to tease us.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of twenty poetry collections, most recently Tongues Out in the Garden of Spectacle (Newcomer Press, August 2023). 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 living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.