June 21, 2024

The neurologist gives us permission

Seema Reza

to go to Rome: Live your lives.
We order cocktail shrimp at the hotel bar,
fries with a parmesan snow. The waiter fills
our flutes to the brim & we swim
in the golden liquid & sink into the leather sofa,
the delights so cliché the cliché the delight
we sing along & avoid eye contact
with the lounge singer: sha-la-la-la-la
two brown-eyed girls in love
dark lipstick on the rim of the glass
& the lounge singer starts Lady in Red
& we swoon & people around us eat their olives
from shallow dishes & we order dessert
to keep the night going, to keep
the sweetness in our mouths

Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day Podcast

“This poem is about how living on the brink of bad news heightens the experience of joy. It’s a poem about aging and falling in love and knowing it will all end. It does all end.”
—Seema Reza

Seema Reza is a Bengali American poet. She is the author of A Constellation of Half-Lives (Write Bloody Publishing, 2019) and When the World Breaks Open (Red Hen Press, 2016). Reza lives in Maryland, on Piscataway land.

A Constellation of Half-Lives
(Write Bloody Publishing, 2019)

“Tomorrow is a Place” by Sanna Wani
read more

“Bliss Point or What Can Best Be Achieved by Cheese” by Benjamin Garcia
read more

Thanks to Rosamond S. King, author of All the Rage (Nightboat, 2021), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about King’s curatorial approach and find out more about our Guest Editors for the year.

“Poem-a-Day is brilliant because it makes space in the everyday racket for something as meaningful as a poem.” —Tracy K. Smith

If this series is meaningful to you, join the community of Poem-a-Day supporters by making a gift today. Now serving more than 320,000 daily subscribers, this publication is only possible thanks to the contributions of readers like you.

donate

Our mailing address is:

The Academy of American Poets

75 Maiden Lane

STE #901

New York, NY 10038

Add us to your address book

View this email in your browser

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from all Academy messages.

For any other questions, please visit the Poem-a-Day FAQ page.

"The neurologist gives us permission" by Seema Raza

The neurologist gives us permission

Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day Podcast

Older messages

"Solstice Re-pot" by Shailja Patel

"Griot of Strange Places" by Romeo Oriogun

From "A Rain of Stars" by Évelyne Trouillot, translated by Danielle Legros Georges

"Between midnight and eternity" by Kettly Mars, translated by Nathan H. Dize

"Purple" by Kwame Dawes

You Might Also Like

The FDA Just Issued a Recall on a Supplement — Because it Contains an ED Drug

10 Ways You're Damaging Your House Without Realizing It

There Is Only One Aimee Lou Wood

Kylie's Bedazzled Bra, Doja Cat's Diamond Naked Dress, & Other Oscars Looks

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants is launching a new list

Solidarity Or Generational Theft?

The Banality of Elon Musk

“In life I’m no longer capable of love,” by Diane Seuss

Your dishwasher isn’t a magician

My 10 year anniversary of being single: exclusive extract from my book