from “Little Runaway” by Krystal Languell

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 21, 2018   from Little Runaway   Krystal Languell

(the passports curled up) (it was so humid in our rented room)                         (travel to forget the criminal element) (in my bad blood) (Nothing very significant at the cemetery)            (an unremarkable       lunch salad)                         (The thrift shop closed six months ago) ((We lit candles for a man who died) (rusted cellar grate)) (near to       home)             (I was afraid (and I made my friend afraid too))                         (another woman altogether said they may be (murderers)) ((I'm more worried about) being backed over by construction vehicles)             (in other places)            (I do pray for my family's safety)                                     (mother says it isn't working)                Copyright © 2018 Krystal Languell. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I have tried many strategies over the years of negotiating the distance between myself and my family. Some of those strategies are collected in this poem. I have wanted to be better than I am. Closer, further away. It's a push and a pull. Elasticity. Balance sometimes seems out of reach." —Krystal Languell   Krystal Languell's latest poetry collection Quite Apart is forthcoming from the University of Akron Press in 2019. She works at the Poetry Foundation and lives in Chicago, Illinois. Poetry by Languell   Gray Market (1913 Press, 2016) "Albuquerque" by Jessica Ankeny "Dum Spiro Spero" by Erin Belieu "Tell Me" by Sara London August Guest Editor: Evie Shockley   Thanks to Evie Shockley, author of semiautomatic (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shockley 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 Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning.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! 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