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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Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year.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
After Bob Across the Street Fires His Gun at a Tree to Scare Off a Raccoon While My Son and I Walk, Rachel Shows Me Night Heron Chicks Avni Vyas 03/06/2024
One Cup of Chai Preeti Vangani 03/05/2024
Abecedarian on the Good Father Keith Leonard 03/04/2024
To the Dandelion James Russell Lowell 03/03/2024
From “An Epistle” Emma Lazarus 03/02/2024
Blessing the Baby Diannely Antigua 03/01/2024
“Thhhat was great” Hayes Davis 02/29/2024
Walking Beside the Cemetery, Olivia Street, Key West Jacqueline Allen Trimble 02/28/2024
Incognito Grief: A Blues Allison Joseph 02/27/2024
Migraines have their say Teri Ellen Cross Davis 02/26/2024

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