Just a rainy day or two
In a windy tower,
That was all I had of you—
Saving half an hour.
Marred by greeting passing groups
In a cinder walk,
Near some naked blackberry hoops
Dim with purple chalk.
I remember three or four
Things you said in spite,
And an ugly coat you wore,
Plaided black and white.
Just a rainy day or two
And a bitter word.
Why do I remember you
As a singing bird?
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on January 25, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.
The sun rises in shades of tuna
I can only hear
One song
See the trucks moving
Like ribbon around me
It's me and this machine
Somewhere are the bodies
I’ve put my mouth on
When I am old
And held in
I hope words
Will be lusterless
I want to be
Buffed so hard that even
The highway
Can’t scratch
When I get to school
One kid reads a piece
About how he wants to give
Relationship Advice
For a living
He says that a cheater
Will always cheat, and of course,
He wants to find a way
To make us learn this
The other day when locking
My house I had
A vision of a field
Behind it were three
Smaller fields
I can leave many times
And still not be
Gone
Copyright © 2020 by Emily Kendal Frey. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 18, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets.
Yesterday I held your hand,
Reverently I pressed it,
And its gentle yieldingness
From my soul I blessed it.
But to-day I sit alone,
Sad and sore repining;
Must our gold forever know
Flames for the refining?
Yesterday I walked with you,
Could a day be sweeter?
Life was all a lyric song
Set to tricksy meter.
Ah, to-day is like a dirge,—
Place my arms around you,
Let me feel the same dear joy
As when first I found you.
Let me once retrace my steps,
From these roads unpleasant,
Let my heart and mind and soul
All ignore the present.
Yesterday the iron seared
And to-day means sorrow.
Pause, my soul, arise, arise,
Look where gleams the morrow.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on May 16, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets.