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Poem-a-Day

The only daily poetry series publishing new work by today’s poets.

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Poem-a-day

Who

Who are the other mammals
full of feathers 
who miss their harsh
fathers like I do,

who collect leather pipes
& hoop dresses like I do,
who send their mothers
supermarket rose bouquets,

who prefer their bodies
ringed round with zippers?
Where are the other
animals that wallow

in purple fringed regret
like I do?
Who are the other mammals
with cloven cracked

chests who stitch
sharp darts 
in their flesh like I do?
O, isn’t it a hopeless

loneliness of kitchens
when you don’t know 
anyone
to give your everything to?

Copyright © 2025 by Abe Louise Young. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 11, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Abe Louise Young

Abe Louise Young
Courtesy of Abe Louise Young
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About Poem-a-Day

Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Khadijah Queen is the Guest Editor of July. Read or listen to a Q&A with Queen about her curatorial process, and learn more about the 2025 Guest Editors. Support Poem-a-Day.  

If you have any questions about Poem-a-Day, visit our Poem-a-Day FAQ.

Previous Poems

Title Author Date
I Was Told the Sunlight Was a Cure Hanif Abdurraqib 08/23/2022
Shorn, treaded red Asiya Wadud 08/22/2022
River Roads Carl Sandburg 08/21/2022
The Depths of the Grass Michael Field 08/20/2022
house hunting as an act of faith t’ai freedom ford 08/19/2022
[Like the Japanese cherry blossoms wedded to the soil’s palm] Luther Hughes 08/18/2022
Fracture Ellen Bass 08/17/2022
You remember the feeling but not what made you feel that way Elizabeth Barnett 08/16/2022
Sun to Void Ladan Osman 08/15/2022
Summer Wind William Cullen Bryant 08/14/2022

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