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Poem-a-day

Somewhere Swimming

like everyone, I love children, 
their fat leg rolls, their mussed hair,
their little sneakers lighting up the summer.
once, I was small like that, a curious wandering eye, 
a bell or pinwheel turning my head,
the gap between my mother’s teeth
beckoning me back.

somewhere swimming inside me is a question
I don’t want to answer. it’s not my name I hear,
but something else, drowning in its own fluid.
a girl on the ferry smiles at me. I smile back—
& it seems to mean the world to her.

Copyright © 2025 by Kyla Marshell. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 16, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Kyla Marshell

Kyla Marshell
Courtesy of Kyla Marshell
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
In Summer Lord Alfred Douglas 06/29/2024
Asylum Seeker Maral Taheri 06/28/2024
savage Pamela Mordecai 06/27/2024
without a word Trish Salah 06/26/2024
Niche Anthony Vahni Capildeo 06/25/2024
What good news in the world Paolo Javier 06/24/2024
Greenness Angelina Weld Grimké 06/23/2024
Twilight Fitz-Greene Halleck 06/22/2024
The neurologist gives us permission Seema Reza 06/21/2024
Solstice Re-pot Shailja Patel 06/20/2024

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