Forthcoming Body of Work
The Body is still warm and
It’s up against the wall for a stick up
It’s peeled fresh and ripe for artmaking
It’s stiff and positioned towards Orion’s Belt
It’s bloated, sewn shut, and full of empty policy
Its blood smeared on the floor in the shape of an ankh
The Body is still warm and the poets grow wings to circle it
Squawk at it until the sound echos back familiar, picking at the remains
To smear onto fellowship applications
For residencies in its bone marrow
The presses clip the fingernails for prize money
The Body is still warm and the news trucks are parallel parking
But one of the tires is still stuck in its eye socket
The colleges are inviting unbiased professors of murder
To analyze the legitimacy of its last breaths
On panels about the restorative effects of embalming
The Body is still warm and I, standing across the street from it
Am making sure the seal on my mask has not been broken
Later tonight there will be a vigil/fundraiser
For families of those who happened to witness The Body
Lying there in the street
Who may have been affected by the open eyes
No one thought to close
The Body is still warm and I will be forced to study it while it leaks
Dip my fingers into the fluid and
Write about how it tastes like
Grandma’s collard greens
Pinch the skin and say its made of cobalt
Pry open the mouth
Identify the open wound as my own
Write from the pew of a funeral I’ve never been to
The Body is still warm and I, too, am
Motionless…praying the pandemonium will cease
Praying the wet and sticky on my fingers
Has not been mine the whole time
Jay Délise (they/them) (official jester of Sugar Hill) is a writer, performance artist, and eater of grapes, based in Harlem, New York. They have performed at the United Nations, the Schomburg Center, Judson Church, the Pulitzer Center, and Roundhouse. Their 2020 self-published poetry collection, tenderhead. debuted at #1 in the poetry audiobook category on Libro.fm, and their work has been featured in publications including Glass Poetry Press, the Huffington Post, Lucky Jefferson, AFROPUNK, Brooklyn Poets, Vagabond City, and Triangle House. Jay has been a teacher and clown consultant/director for almost a decade (old), and their work smells of mischief, church giggles, and being barefoot on unfinished hardwood floors. They enjoy stealing from white people, bad wigs, being gay, fart jokes, jazz music, free art, and assuming their mother/father wounds are undetectable, but writing poems about them anyway.