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Poem-a-day

“I came here to be a poet …”

I like how Stevie Nicks speaks like a Martian sometimes.  

“I came here for a reason,” she said in a 1983 interview. 
As if simply relaying the directive from her mothership.  

“I didn’t come here to be a mother …” Bet that sounded  
pretty alien then. Coming from a young pretty woman.  

Like a Trojan horse. Feminism disguised in a frilly dress.   

It makes me think about my birth mother. Like Stevie, 
she didn’t come here to be a mother. Unlike my mother,  
who couldn’t get pregnant but wouldn’t let that stop her 
from becoming what she came here to be. My mother,  

as passionate about adoption as she was about choice. 

I like how that confuses some—those who like to point 
out that abortion might’ve prevented her from adopting. 
I suppose those dimwits came here to be … well, dimwits.  

Still, bet they can’t help but hum along when they hear 
Stevie Nicks songs. Failing to realize that all those songs  
are her children. That she gave birth to them for us.   

“Because,” she said. “I want to enhance this planet.” 

Copyright © 2026 by Michael Montlack. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 17, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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Michael Montlack

Michael Montlack
Courtesy of Michael Montlack
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Dorianne Laux is the Guest Editor for April. Read or listen to a Q&A with Laux about his 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
What Ails Me Sara Nicholson 01/06/2026
Chickens Gary Jackson 01/05/2026
II [Doom is dark and deeper than any sea-dingle.] W. H. Auden 01/04/2026
Desires André Fontainas 01/03/2026
Megaloceros J. Bailey Hutchinson 01/02/2026
Burning Candle Austin Araujo 01/01/2026
I Face East (Ars Poetica) Carlina Duan 12/31/2025
Gaza I Sara Abou Rashed 12/30/2025
Solstice Pantoum Deema K. Shehabi 12/29/2025
Le Jardin des Tuileries Oscar Wilde 12/28/2025

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