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Poem-a-day

there aren’t enough idioms about the stars

i think a good one would be:
the sky is petty enough without us
pestering it for stars. or, relatedly:
a good star is hard to find. or somehow
under an orange rind you’ll rustle up a star. or: betelgeuse
is a hell of a way to spend a night. or
better a cluster of stars than another bad sleep.
you cannot dream with your mouth
open and catch the light of the right star.
if you stretch across a bed you will find the light
of it still across your arm like lotion.
if i exaggerate, and call attention to nothing,
it is because as of late, i’ve become 
a hard star out of focus. to catasterize, to place
among the stars, is to curse a foe with darkest ink.
imagine the galaxy as a fable of spilled milk. picture
wanting lemonade. i suppose some of these
are more idioms of space. a shame that any time of year,
whatever you are feeling, the sky at night 
remains the same. or what i mean to say is i’m never sure
the season, but yes, i dream of her.

Copyright © 2025 by Keith S. Wilson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 4, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Keith S. Wilson

Keith S. Wilson
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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

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The Disappeared Cecilia Vicuña 09/15/2021
We Were Anna Maria Hong 09/14/2021
The Only Emperor David Shapiro 09/13/2021
[Know thou well this world its state ...] Khushal Khan Khattak 09/12/2021
Rulers Fenton Johnson 09/11/2021
The Pu Pu Platter Appetizer Hoa Nguyen 09/10/2021
For Henry’s Bar Joseph Rios 09/09/2021

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