jayy dodd

EVERY MORNING I HAVE TO MAKE SURE THIS IS WHEN I’M FROM

in this moment, I will take whatever design is available
how many rituals done & undone, again? a humidity primed
for this spectacle. to say partial. how many times have I known
the other intimately? turn alarm into music. everyday,
some kind of orchestral moment. the nicer ways motionless,
molecular mobility maintains. create a pattern out of anything, movement
few things can claim forever even when bodies render themselves
did i believe this way last time? next time, do i have to? acknowledge
every lifeless thing i leave behind keep the element beneath my fluttering
is this better than another kind of faith? stomach a signal into a prayer—
a year. never was mine. each ending. end-time time bellowing forward.
lose the weather. not the atmosphere, yet same sky, another forecast. lost
i can’t come back to tell myself: try something new. i believe i can
today, it looks like mating season. calling the dance how i see it.

jayy dodd is a literary and performance artist from Los Angeles now based in Portland, Oregon. They are the author of Mannish Tongues (Platypus Press), The Black Condition ft. Narcissus (Nightboat), and Impressive Woman (Nightboat).