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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

Summer City

In my damp inseam, the weather creases low and smooth.
Down the back and underneath the levy of legs. Tender

is the escape of water & salt—I jury to this known monument.
The camera washes the window, pushes the sheer orange

curtain away. In effect, it creates this timeline. That
I am currently a part of, like a lonely spider. It strikes.

There are these exhausting trips from
here to there: wasted time & the feeling
that everything is just the way it’s supposed to be.

You haven’t lived up to anything
and You haven’t lived at all.
Cursing dumb decisions like a plate of bad food

& then suddenly,
the begging silence
of how everything is now,
in this exact moment it appeared to me.

But, it goes cold and hardens.

It’s just a reminder:

every sentence is an ending and it is not.
There’s another sentence expected after it.

Copyright © 2026 by travis l. tate. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 22, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.

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travis l. tate

travis l. tate
Courtesy of travis l. tate
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Sam Sax is the Guest Editor for June. Read or listen to a Q&A with Sax about their 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
Reciprocity is a Two-Way Street Momtaza Mehri 01/22/2021
On the Last Day, the Bullet is Asked Sadia Hassan 01/21/2021
The B-Sides of the Golden Records, Track Five: “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” Sumita Chakraborty 01/20/2021
The Witch Reads Me My Birthchart Eloisa Amezcua 01/19/2021
Love in Outer Space Alison C. Rollins 01/18/2021
Two Points of View Lucian B. Watkins 01/17/2021
Evadne H.D. 01/16/2021
Tomorrow Is a Place Sanna Wani 01/15/2021
After Touching You, I Think of Narcissus Drowning Leila Chatti 01/14/2021
STILL UNBUTTONED & UNBOTHERED: On Imagining That Freedom Probably Feels Like Getting the Itis Jacqui Germain 01/13/2021

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