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Poem-a-day

Wake Turbulence

After leaving my old life
I return often

the way a dried
chickpea

soaked overnight
comes back

to its first form,
not the same as

floating all along
in the aluminum

of origins.
My brain has

suffered a wake
turbulence

as when a plane
banks to the left

due to another
plane above.

Each time I feel
the fact of me

die out I read
my children

like a stranger’s
punctuation

beckoning me
for directions.

Some days
I will not eat

unless it’s tart
au nothing

longing for
not quite love

again, but the lip
of the jar of love

is just as nice.
My heart says

Bad bad bad
flicking two

packs of sugar
against a cup

and my spine
remains my favorite

part of me because
I cannot see it.

In the conference
moonlight, several

workshops of stars
neglect their work,

backbiting Earth
in the most beautiful

voices. Upon landing
my wish is to be

done returning
like a Cycladic

figure in a tomb
leaning faceless

but absolutely femme
against what was.

The dead so dead
the statue flaunts

her future. She never
left. I left yes yes

and in the end
I will still be praying

not to die
when and if I do.

Copyright © 2026 by Elizabeth Metzger. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 5, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Elizabeth Metzger

Elizabeth Metzger
Photo credit: Yvette Roman
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Charif Shanahan is the Guest Editor for August. Read or listen to a Q&A with Charif about his curatorial process, and learn more about the 2026 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
Proem Maggie Millner
Homecoming (audio only) Claudia Emerson
A Suggested Campaign Song Alice Duer Miller
Close Out Sale Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
Passerby, These are Words Yves Bonnefoy
On the Brighton Beach Boardwalk Gala Mukomolova
Invisibility Renato Rosaldo
The Task Edward Hirsch
from Things I Don’t Miss From My Youth A. B. Spellman
Good Morning Heartache Cheryl Dumesnil

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