It’s National Poetry Month. Here’s an NYC poem to kickstart your week.

April is National Poetry Month and we’re marking the occasion by reading poems on WNYC every day throughout the month. (Gothamist and WNYC are owned by New York Public Radio.)

This year, our theme for poetry month is “local” – and we’re looking at the nearby places that matter to New Yorkers.

Our first featured poem is from Brooklyn-based author and poet Jiwon Choi about something that is local to everyone: the subway.

I Take the “D” Train

From Stillwell Avenue
to Rockefeller Center
the Fujianese
Guyanese
Uzbekistanis
hum and flow
tongues in flux
vowels in absentia

our human mass
in transit

then I spy the half-eaten
pastrami or rye
gutted and strewn
under the seat and I grieve
for this tale of unrequited lunch.

Would you like to submit a poem? We’d love to hear your poems about the nearby places that matter to you, and we might play your poem on WNYC. Email us your poem at [email protected]. Please send us the text of your poem, as well as a voice memo. Record yourself on your phone, reading your poem somewhere quiet. Shorter poems are preferred.

Later this month, we’re hosting “Poetry Unplugged with Morning Edition” at the Greene Space. At this live event hosted by Michael Hill, celebrated local poets take center stage to share their personal work in front of a live audience for the first time.