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Poem-a-day

Critique of My Thighs

Untitled Document
—after Lucille Clifton

on the platform i pray
i don’t have to wait too long
for the next train—my girth
too loud, disruptive
for this crowd,
in the elevator i make myself
small, recall Nani’s final days
how my aunt
dressed her after a shower
that memory her skin on bones
follows me everywhere
how she was only slightly there,
but for those family heirloom hips
those dominant gene thighs
i wish i was proud of this pear
that follows me everywhere
of what abundance
adorns this temple
and wrote for it an homage
and not a lament

Copyright © 2025 by Fatima Malik. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 11, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Fatima Malik

Fatima Malik
Photo credit: Daniel Restrepo
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Omotara James is the Guest Editor of June. Read or listen to a Q&A with James 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

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Control Feast Elizabeth Metzger 02/17/2017
At Harlem Hospital across the street from the Schomburg the only thing to eat is a Big Mac Samiya Bashir 02/16/2017
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Heart to Heart Rita Dove 02/14/2017
What Would Gwendolyn Brooks Do Parneshia Jones 02/13/2017
Adolescence Claude McKay 02/12/2017
At the Fair Edith Sitwell 02/11/2017
Ice Would Suffice Risa Denenberg 02/09/2017
Plex Lisa Robertson 02/09/2017
If They Are a Silueta Melissa Buzzeo 02/08/2017

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