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Poem-a-day

Burn Out

Everything is fine: a means to endure  
news cycles, historic cycles, menstrual 

cycles. This is walking home after work,  
crawling into bed naked. Night, quiet with 

snow. I am an empty bank account.  
I am a pylon glowing in the dark. I am  
a primal scream. I am not here.         

The body speaks first. If that doesn’t work,  
the mind empties: a crate of crabs scuttling

toward nothingness. Authoritarianism 
blossoms like a corpse flower: foul men 

spread their stench across the globe.  
I remember these songs. It’s all on fire. 

A meteor // a virus // a bomb   
like a dark-eyed angel hurtles toward us. 

I’d like to see the ocean lap against a glacier 
before the end. I’d like to see the northern 

lights. I’d like to watch effigies of foul men  
burn in the desert. I’d like to be there, reel there, 
at the end.

Copyright © 2026 by Amy M. Alvarez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 23, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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Amy M. Alvarez

Amy M. Alvarez
Photo credit: Adam Lewis
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Khaled Mattawa is the Guest Editor of December. Read or listen to a Q&A with Mattawa about his 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
Aunt Chloe's Politics Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 06/23/2019
Grace Joy Harjo 06/22/2019
pitter/patter heidi andrea restrepo rhodes 06/21/2019
They Don’t Love You Like I Love You Natalie Diaz 06/20/2019
The scalps of the women with the best prophecies are dry this season Ladan Osman 06/19/2019
Cling LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs 06/18/2019
Collude Bhanu Kapil 06/17/2019
At the Carnival Anne Spencer 06/16/2019
Dream Variations Langston Hughes 06/15/2019
I hope to God you will not ask Esther Belin 06/14/2019

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