"Playlist: 11 Weeks" by Kendra DeColo

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( July 5, 2018 [Playlist: 11 Weeks]( [Kendra DeColo]( 1. lush field of shadows, static hush and radial itch, primordial 2. goo of the sonogram's wand gliding across my belly 3. my daughter blooming into focus, feathered 4. and fluttering across the stormy screen, the way it rained 5. so hard one night in April driving home from the café in Queens 6. where we’d eaten sweet tamales I thought we might drown 7. in the flooded streets but we didn’t and I want to say 8. that was the night she was conceived: husk and sugar, 9. an apartment filled with music, hiss of damp clothes 10. drying on the radiator, a prayer made with a record’s broken needle 11. to become beaming and undone. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2018 Kendra DeColo. Used with permission of the author. [illustration]( About This Poem “Playlists have always been a way for me to honor the magic and impossibility of connection—an extended love song. In this poem, it is a way of going back and singing to my daughter, putting words to the speechlessness and awe of seeing her for the first time.” —Kendra DeColo [Kendra DeColo]( Kendra DeColo is the author of My Dinner with Ron Jeremy (Third Man Books, 2016) and Thieves in the Afterlife (Saturnalia Books, 2014), selected by Yusef Komunyakaa for the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo credit: Lindsey Rome [My Dinner with Ron Jeremy]( Poetry by DeColo [My Dinner with Ron Jeremy]( (Third Man Books, 2016) "Prodigal" by Linda Gregerson [read-more]( "The More Extravagant Feast" by Leah Naomi Green [read-more]( "Frequently Asked Questions: #9" by Camille T. Dungy [read-more]( July Guest Editor: Adrian Matejka Thanks to Adrian Matejka, author of Map to the Stars (Penguin Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about [Matejka]( and our [guest editors for the year.]( Help Support Poem-a-Day If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a [monthly donation]( or [one-time gift]( to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038