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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
Love Songs (I) Mina Loy 02/16/2019
to be considered before inviting everyone to The Cookout™ Rasheed Copeland 02/15/2019
Hon or We have both traveled from the other side of some hill, one side of which we may wish we could forget Anis Mojgani 02/14/2019
1000 Safia Elhillo 02/13/2019
When I Am a Hummingbird Alan Michael Parker 02/12/2019
Jakarta, January Sarah Kay 02/11/2019
On Joy and Sorrow Kahlil Gibran 02/10/2019
Albert Schirding Edgar Lee Masters 02/09/2019
Prayer Severing the Cycle Donte Collins 02/08/2019
Inevitable Mahogany L. Browne 02/07/2019

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