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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

One Way To Resurrect An Ancestor

Imagine where you cannot be.

Enter the room, locate the seating
prefer the 90” sofa with 30” bench
so the shadows of your feet camou-
flage the floor

Lounge near the right arm so the
dominant side of your body is
safe unexposed     enjoy this room

this easy space     you make
the only sound      you control this noise

you push and suck air through your teeth

as your grandmother

hum as she did when she watered her ferns

space so          untouched
it’s green          you asked

no one
permission to be here

you said
I belong here then      did what you did

Copyright © 2025 by CM Burroughs. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 18, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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CM Burroughs

CM Burroughs
Courtesy of CM Burroughs
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
Self-Portrait as Combination Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC Aaron Tyler Hand 04/22/2024
The Park Ralph Waldo Emerson 04/21/2024
Four Freedoms Park Monica Youn 04/20/2024
17 Kinds of Hungry Adrian Matejka 04/19/2024
From “Take Me Back, Burden Hill” L. Lamar Wilson 04/18/2024
Black Hole Virginia Konchan 04/17/2024
Diagnostic Quiz for Human Ghost James Fujinami Moore 04/16/2024
Lightning Bug Colin Pope 04/15/2024
From “Muʻallaqāt” [Canst thou make me immortal] Tarafa 04/14/2024
Parkside & Ocean b ferguson 04/13/2024

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