Accomplishments
Published in Poem Of The Day
What you have not done
is without error. What you
have not said is beyond contradiction.
What you understand of God
was yesterday. Today a bicycle
waits, chained to a bench.
The success of this afternoon's nap
is the dream of lifting seven boxes,
your week, sealed with clear tape.
They stack, three to a column,
with the seventh like a capstone.
What you do not know they contain.
About this poem
"The first stanza came to me just as it is on an afternoon walk. It took me more than a year to get the other three to go with it."
-Michael Chitwood
About Michael Chitwood
Michael Chitwood is the author of "Living Wages" (Tupelo Press, 2014). He teaches at the University of North Carolina and lives in Chapel Hill, N.C.
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The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.
(c) 2014 Michael Chitwood. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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