Dayna Hodge Lynch
Power of Blood
Wine-breathed and lonely
She rests along with her bones
She presses her teeth to the inside
Of her cheek harder than expected
She has learned to measure time in pain
One problem spilling into another
Before the familiar taste of copper
The first time she bled
A sadness surrounded her
along with her mama playing telephone
Calling all her “aunties”
handing her a pad
saying she’d get used to it
Shifting thighs cut with denim and rough hands
When she first learned the power of her blood
Holy--the heavy liquid made everyone stop
Just like when the blood snaked from her nose to
her new shirt in the 5th grade after the monkey bars
Just like when her former lover made the gooey substance
rush to the surface of her skin, wading in her body for release
Just like when she held her friend [redacted’s] bloody hands
after filling out the police report naming her attacker
Watching her friend [redacted] bury herself
Before we would have to
The catcalls of men who wanted to kink out her body
Gods made homes in all my niggas that bleed
On streets, in hospital beds, in her bed
Bootleg tumbleweeds rolling inside her body
Upset at the state of the world
she never wants to reproduce
So she bleeds
She rests along with her bones
She presses her teeth to the inside
Of her cheek harder than expected
She has learned to measure time in pain
One problem spilling into another
Before the familiar taste of copper
The first time she bled
A sadness surrounded her
along with her mama playing telephone
Calling all her “aunties”
handing her a pad
saying she’d get used to it
Shifting thighs cut with denim and rough hands
When she first learned the power of her blood
Holy--the heavy liquid made everyone stop
Just like when the blood snaked from her nose to
her new shirt in the 5th grade after the monkey bars
Just like when her former lover made the gooey substance
rush to the surface of her skin, wading in her body for release
Just like when she held her friend [redacted’s] bloody hands
after filling out the police report naming her attacker
Watching her friend [redacted] bury herself
Before we would have to
The catcalls of men who wanted to kink out her body
Gods made homes in all my niggas that bleed
On streets, in hospital beds, in her bed
Bootleg tumbleweeds rolling inside her body
Upset at the state of the world
she never wants to reproduce
So she bleeds
Biography
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Dayna Hodge Lynch (she/they) is a poet from North Carolina. Dayna is a Black queer woman who writes to explore personal histories and expand her own beliefs. Dayna received her B.A. in English and an African and African-American Studies minor from Loyola University of New Orleans and has received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She works at a library, enjoys eating mangoes, and can’t wait to get back to New Zealand.
Instagram: @definitelyday |
