"I Have a New Obsession with Bones" by jayy dodd

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( December 18, 2018 [I Have a New Obsession with Bones]( [jayy dodd]( you cannot read what you do not collect the rain came in algidity after suffocating heat still the ravaging of marrow is worth it tendons swollen & seasoned with need madness is always a hunger that i am even able to eat is its own feat i have learned to swallow charitably cede my mouth to the gristle cede my tongue to cartilage a former fixation on writhing now what is left? what is present when the flesh rots away? when the spirit returns to the magnitude it belongs? when my mother taught me how to properly eat chicken, she told me truly nothing had to be left behind. there is meat through the bone. this makes sense like Matter. nothing is ever lost. nothing is ever gone if devoured completely. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2018 jayy dodd. Used with permission of the author. [dodd reads "I Have a New Obsession with Bones."]( About This Poem “This work sifts through the childhood lesson of not wasting food (among other blessings) and the ritualism of that acknowledgment. In my adulthood, navigating the cost of living and being outside, I am compelled to think more critically about the matter of which I am made.” —jayy dodd [jayy dodd]( jayy dodd is the author of Mannish Tongues (Platypus Press, 2017) and The Black Condition ft. Narcissus, forthcoming from Nightboat Books in 2019. They are a literary and performance artist living in Portland, Oregon. [more-at-poets]( [Mannish Tongues]( Poetry by dodd [Mannish Tongues]( (Platypus Press, 2017) "Muse & Drudge [just as I am I come]" by Harryette Mullen [read-more]( "Eating the Bones" by Ellen Bass [read-more]( "The Dry Spell" by Kevin Young [read-more]( December Guest Editor: Carmen Giménez Smith Thanks to Carmen Giménez Smith, author of Cruel Futures (City Lights Publishers, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read more about [Giménez Smith]( and our [guest editors for the year.]( [make a one-time donation]( [make a monthly donation]( [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( 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 From Our Sponsors [Advertisement](