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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

There’s no “sass” in “dissociation.”

three feet behind my grin I speak
so seems my teeth is down for it
but it’s a make-do I do.
I DM P. L. Dunbar on some 
whatchu mean “we?” no—
really, though. the rough metric
opening this a lie to make 
done the otherwise I say I is.
yet, the we I been subtweets 
me—“whatchu mean ‘I?’”—
answer’s off my tongue, so: 
authentic, no? where “fine,” “OK,”
“yes” get forged? I split my difference
between here and gone, 
a distance of hard words 
hissed; presence of the harms’
numb climb: I’m fine, I’m fine.

Copyright © 2025 by Douglas Kearney. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 10, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Douglas Kearney

Douglas Kearney
Photo credit: Krizia Studios
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
Owed to the Durag Joshua Bennett
Taken Aback Claude McKay
Olney Hymns, IX [The Contrite Heart] William Cowper
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Dylan Thomas
Mercy Does Not Mean Thank You (audio only) Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot [Shut, shut the door] Alexander Pope
To the Addict Who Mugged Me William Brewer
Return to Sea Langston Hughes
Negro Serenade James Edwin Campbell
Spoken from the Hedgerows Jorie Graham

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