‘The Space Between Skin is Called a Wound’
— jayy dodd
I’m a kind of excess
a gold chain greedy for the light
a fat shiny river around the neck
in this way I begin everywhere
and nowhere
From the Shade Journal’s inaugural issue, ‘The Space Between’ opens in the way one reacts to drawing their own blood. It is a defiant acceptance of self & body that rattles throughout the poem. Randall utilized specific & plain speech to frame the metaphor incising the work. A feature of Randall’s voice is a reflective dismantling of the poem’s subject, here the biracial Afro-latinx body. There are few questions present but the answers are bombastic & indelible. Randall’s work performs in observations, each stanza a crafted broadcast from the heart of the poet’s voice.