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Poem-a-day

there aren’t enough idioms about the stars

i think a good one would be:
the sky is petty enough without us
pestering it for stars. or, relatedly:
a good star is hard to find. or somehow
under an orange rind you’ll rustle up a star. or: betelgeuse
is a hell of a way to spend a night. or
better a cluster of stars than another bad sleep.
you cannot dream with your mouth
open and catch the light of the right star.
if you stretch across a bed you will find the light
of it still across your arm like lotion.
if i exaggerate, and call attention to nothing,
it is because as of late, i’ve become 
a hard star out of focus. to catasterize, to place
among the stars, is to curse a foe with darkest ink.
imagine the galaxy as a fable of spilled milk. picture
wanting lemonade. i suppose some of these
are more idioms of space. a shame that any time of year,
whatever you are feeling, the sky at night 
remains the same. or what i mean to say is i’m never sure
the season, but yes, i dream of her.

Copyright © 2025 by Keith S. Wilson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 4, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Keith S. Wilson

Keith S. Wilson
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
A Rogue Dream Melanie Figg 11/12/2020
1918, Iva Describes Her Deathbed LeAnne Howe 11/11/2020
The Seven Prisms of My Blood Khaty Xiong 11/10/2020
Self-Portrait as the Changeling Halee Kirkwood 11/09/2020
On the Hills of Dawn Alexander Posey 11/08/2020
Marshlands Emily Pauline Johnson 11/07/2020
From “The Age of Aquarius” Roy G. Guzmán 11/06/2020
America is Loving Me to Death Michael Kleber-Diggs 11/05/2020
The Index Rena Priest 11/04/2020
The Way Words Echo in Our Heads James Cihlar 11/03/2020

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