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

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Poem-a-day

Drenched in Reflection

Cause we’re not allowed in public, not really.
My mom thinks everyone is enamored with my beauty,
But I know they are surprised to see one of us
Living. Outside is a stage & I’m a pretty player.
I love what I see on the other side of myself.
A man tells my mother he couldn’t take the doll,
Because my heels, my legs, my tattoos stopped
Him from looking me in the eye. He wants to meet
Me, to apologize for eating me from my sole up.
He’s the worst I’m aware of, but not alone in lust-
Filled gaze givers. All I want to tell my mother
About me. How they like my parts. She thinks
I’m unclockable until I speak & I know she’s trying
Not to blame me for any danger I dodge. Desire
Is in the eye of the beholder, but I live in the empty
Hands of discombobulated bastards. Disintegrate
In their salivating. I am shards of selves
They wish to suck between their teeth.

Copyright © 2025 by Jzl Jmz. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 14, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Jzl Jmz

Jzl Jmz
Courtesy of Jzl Jmz
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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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 Heart of the Woman W. B. Yeats
Immortal Mark Van Doren
On a Line from Valery (The Gulf War) Carolyn Kizer
The Barbarians Are Coming Marilyn Chin
The Price of the End of It Patricia Smith
Scumble Rae Armantrout
The Spring Cricket Considers the Question of Negritude Rita Dove
The Affliction Marie Howe
Crossings Ravi Shankar
A Woman Sleeps on an Island Marjorie Agosín

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