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Poem-a-day

Trim

At the end

of the story,

we exchanged

hair. Two tiny

Ziploc bags,

little plastic

windows.

 

I sheared off

the tip 

of my braid,

candlewick

twist-tight.

 

Please

use these

dead cells

to make

new words.

 

We never

baked

the blueberry

crumble:

let the

mashed bowl

of indigo

fruit

on the

counter

be your ink.

 

Dip me

whole

into the

sweet

blood &

try to

write

about

cutting

hair &

a scissor’s

song,

its sound

akin to

a memory

holding its

own

breath.

 

I wear

your black

cursive

on my chin,

& imagine

being the

teenaged boy

that you will

raise

with a lover

that looks

like me.

 

I wrap

you around

my wedding

finger, pull

& watch

you snap back

until you yawn.

 

I dress

you in the

foam of

apricot shampoo,

spin you in

my palm

to wash out

time.

 

At midnight,

you lay me

at the nape

of your neck,

guarding

your spine,

in the blue violet                                                                                                                 

of dream’s

intermissions.

 

We are

climbing

strands

to each other’s

roots,

searching

for homes

that we

have

already

passed.

 

Behind

your head

& in my hands,

we are closer

than secret.

Copyright © 2025 by Yalie Saweda Kamara. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 23, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Yalie Saweda Kamara

Yalie Saweda Kamara
Photo credit: JP Leong
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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

Title Author Date
Leaves of Today Kit Robinson 07/15/2022
I Never Felt Comfortable in My Own Skin So I Made a New One Xan Forest Phillips 07/14/2022
Lineage Anagrams II Lillian-Yvonne Bertram 07/13/2022
from “Consequences of a Heavy Heart” Jennifer Firestone 07/12/2022
I, New York Lam Lai 07/11/2022
The Treasure Robinson Jeffers 07/10/2022
In the Yellowstone Harriet Monroe 07/09/2022
fire danger high today Jaye Elizabeth Elijah 07/08/2022
Language of the Moon Major Jackson 07/07/2022
How could I have known I would need to remember your laughter, Lauren K. Alleyne 07/06/2022

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