"Unruly" by Jari Bradley

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend Support Poem-a-Day January 8, 2020   Unruly   Jari Bradley

Hushed whispers in an undisclosed room             Take it out of the girl a child, boyish in nature                     their smallness magnified.   Outcasted—the soft bodied animal you are determined unruly animalia,                                                     what survives inflation & inertia?   The body is a set of complex feedback systems nothing is as it appears                                                    the coexistence of a beard & breasts                                                    evidence of the body's willfully defiant                                                        nature   The body's resilience amid the promise of perish:                                               somehow the child survives their own hand                                               the day's weary edge inverted toward grace   A child, boyish in their nature           & barrel shaped             survives sedimented against the residue             of dunes, soil, leaf litter,         & the bodies of a lesser   What couldn't be excised             your boyish nature             your untamed phylum,         your small heart pulsing loud                                                                notes against the night.              Copyright © 2020 by Jari Bradley. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 8, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets. About this Poem   "I was inspired by the life cycle of Tardigrades, a phylum of water dwelling micro animals. They are incredibly resilient, being able to withstand radiation, starvation, dehydration, and so much more. The unruly nature of its existence reminds me of the black queer child cultivated in a society that seeks to destroy such a child. Writing through abjection has provided another means of staging the resilience of my own body growing up in San Francisco, and the seemingly smallness of such a life." —Jari Bradley   Jari Bradley is a San Francisco native and an MFA candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. "a note on the body" by Danez Smith "A Memory" by Saeed Jones "Kingdom Animalia" by Aracelis Girmay January Guest Editor: Meg Day   Thanks to Meg Day, author of Last Psalm at Sea Level (Barrow Street, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A about Day's curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year. A culture break, a source of daily renewal...   If reading Poem-a-Day has become a meaningful part of your day, please consider supporting this free series with a donation. Your gift makes publishing Poem-a-Day possible. 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   Unsubscribe here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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