(love)   I’ve been trying to make our (baby) without our bodies   
             I threw some bones on the page    I wrote;  
             you are a ghost that’s never lived  
             little side mirror spell 
             (love) I made our (baby) a ghost to get our (baby) here  
             who said that?  
             what a man won’t do  
             to get what he wants? 

             forgive me?  (love) I thought I knew something  
about loving     I was longing     I thought I knew something  
             about ghosts     I’m closer to Okri  
             than I am a father  
spirit-child    wounded wound    my mouth that won’t close  
             what kind of ghost has never been alive?  
             unborn   born   and ghost again?  

             (baby) I’m sorry  
             I’m sorry to bring you forth like this    
             into suffering

Copyright © 2026 by Tyree Daye. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 11, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.