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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
A Black Genius Ishmael Reed 12/03/2024
In the Beginning, There was the Light Felix Cortes 12/02/2024
As if some little Arctic flower Emily Dickinson 12/01/2024
A Cry from an Indian Wife Emily Pauline Johnson 11/30/2024
Untitled [Here is a place where nothing can die] Lance Henson 11/29/2024
Wooden Window Frames Luci Tapahonso 11/28/2024
Meetings Elizabeth Woody 11/27/2024
The Home of the Sacred Ofelia Zepeda 11/26/2024
Delayza’s Necklace Max Early 11/25/2024
The Yellow Corn Charles G. Eastman 11/24/2024

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