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The only daily poetry series publishing new work by today’s poets.

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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
from “When the Rooster Announces the Dawn of Another Day” Alain Mabanckou 06/06/2022
Of a Certain Friendship Elsa Gidlow 06/05/2022
Voyages V Hart Crane 06/04/2022
Caught Sight Claire Hong 06/03/2022
Rest House Brandon Shimoda 06/02/2022
Hinemoana essa may ranapiri 06/01/2022
Seawall soliloquy number two: she built a seawall Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner 05/31/2022
Fire Dragon Sage Uʻilani Takehiro 05/30/2022
The Gift of India Sarojini Naidu 05/29/2022
[The sun is lord of life and colour] Iris Tree 05/28/2022

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