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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

Who

Who are the other mammals
full of feathers 
who miss their harsh
fathers like I do,

who collect leather pipes
& hoop dresses like I do,
who send their mothers
supermarket rose bouquets,

who prefer their bodies
ringed round with zippers?
Where are the other
animals that wallow

in purple fringed regret
like I do?
Who are the other mammals
with cloven cracked

chests who stitch
sharp darts 
in their flesh like I do?
O, isn’t it a hopeless

loneliness of kitchens
when you don’t know 
anyone
to give your everything to?

Copyright © 2025 by Abe Louise Young. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 11, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Abe Louise Young

Abe Louise Young
Courtesy of Abe Louise Young
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
[The lamp is like a capsized ship]: Two Voices Muse over the Speaker Alessandra Lynch 04/05/2024
Prayer for 2018 Cecilia Woloch 04/04/2024
Make/Do Divya Victor 04/03/2024
[…] Fady Joudah 04/02/2024
Pinocchia, you must not stop for a friend Lo Kwa Mei-en 04/01/2024
My Easter Dove Henrietta Cordelia Ray 03/31/2024
The Paper Nautilus Marianne Moore 03/30/2024
The Jesus Fridge Jeffrey McDaniel 03/29/2024
Red-Shouldered Hawk Ciona Rouse 03/28/2024
Just as the Darkness Got Very Dark / Another Data Point Erika Meitner 03/27/2024

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