Jay Orlando
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jayorlando.bsky.social
Jay Orlando
@jayorlando.bsky.social
89 followers 76 following 73 posts
Pushcart nominated poet, trans, ttrpg nerd. Roots so deep in Appalachia I can feel the coal mines between my toes.
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jayorlando.bsky.social
WHEN THE GOVERNMENT MURDERS A POET IN BROAD DAYLIGHT Crack open your pens like the shells of so many walnuts and let the ink run down your cheeks. This is your warpaint. Beckon Elijah down from his seat in the sky. Ask him to prophecy truth to power. Call down the angels, too, and their flaming swords. Call down the spirits of the ancestors and their sacred Stonewall bricks. Let all of heaven take up arms. Let my mother's ghost lead a regiment of seraphim to march on gilded Washington. We will spit tongues of fire to melt this winter of ICE. We will rain sulphur on the streets of Minnesota. Get out your grandmother's typewriter. Punch the keys like a machine gun. Fill the halls of congress with the noise of it until that noise rips through the ears of all those elected devils who pretend not to hear. Do not reserve your rage for the digital landscape when the bullets are analog. Take to the streets. Line the sidewalks with voices of protest. Monkeywrench the gears of the machinery of power. Be bold. Only when the very earth cries out for precious retribution will the work be done.
January 8, 2026 at 10:00 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Recent poem about recent events
Easter 2025 Katy Perry takes a luxury cruise to space and Joanne Rowling drinks champagne head wreathed in smoke from her celebratory cigar while trans people are dying. An ocean away my own government draws red lines across a cork board to redefine the boundaries of law. Men in my small town are threatening the Queens at the Pride Gala, hiding behind masks and confederate flags and toxic masculinity and Facebook bravado. The scars across my chest smile at me in the mirror. They say "imagine having more money than God and using it to bury minorities; to legislate children into suicide pacts over rainbow flags." That teacher in Indiana that had a gun-toting mother threaten her life – is that the teacher they want to arm? "Duel’s at recess, kids, close your eyes, plug your ears." Every time a blonde white woman with a cross around her neck tells me to repent Jesus rolls his stone away and offers me his holy hands, his holy feet, still bloody from the crucifixion. I kiss his earth, I kiss his cheek. We embrace, a long and sobbing hug. There is no hell, I know this. No great lake of fire, no sulfuric scent of brimstone. "But," I whisper in Christ’s ear feeling the weight of his body, "I wish sometimes there was a place for all these devils."
May 4, 2025 at 6:55 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
working on a little zine project to walk people through one approach to writing a poem. It functions basically as a step-by-step of how I would teach a poetry course, in direct refutation of the way I was taught.
April 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Went to a party, befriended this cat
March 15, 2025 at 3:54 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Really, really hype about this one! @hobocampreview.bsky.social has inspired me to attempt an entire David Lynch chapbook, and the very first poem I wrote for it will be in their David Lynch memorial issue right around my birthday in July!!
March 3, 2025 at 4:06 AM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Working title. Current project: poems on a friendship lost through the lens of David Lynch films. Not sure if I love or hate it, but it has been a good excuse to re-watch Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, and Blue Velvet.
screenshot of a Word document that says "Strange World, A David Lynch inspired poetry series"
February 20, 2025 at 6:14 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
The first poem I ever had published back in 2016. On Growing Up Queer in Northern Appalachia. Seems as relevant now as ever.
February 17, 2025 at 6:09 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Hanging out with poets, feeling saintly
February 9, 2025 at 1:49 AM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Poem of mine from issue #1 of @redbranchreview.bsky.social about trying, and failing, to communicate with a father in a world that fails to teach men empathy.
February 4, 2025 at 8:20 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
A little bit serious, a little bit tongue in cheek. #TransWriters
January 7, 2025 at 7:39 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Sometimes when I can't sleep I write haiku
January 2, 2025 at 8:54 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
This is what Altoona thinks pizza is. A disgrace. An abomination, if you will. And I am uniquely qualified to name abominations.
Just the worst pizza you've ever seen. Bread. American cheese. I think a green pepper shrink wrapped in the cheese? It's sad. I'm weeping.
December 10, 2024 at 5:57 AM
jayorlando.bsky.social
H O R S E
December 3, 2024 at 11:11 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
New posts up at rolesolo.bearblog.dev
December 1, 2024 at 12:12 AM
jayorlando.bsky.social
My publisher, Redhawk Publications, is having a holiday sale! Use code THANKS35 for 35% off my debut poetry collection - A Tangled Lineage - and get yourself or loved ones the gift of queer Appalachian poetry this season!
November 27, 2024 at 5:14 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
YOOO FOUND OUT I'M NOMINATED FOR A PUSHCART
November 22, 2024 at 2:22 AM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Thought about Pauly a lot yesterday on TDOR. We grew up in the same area. I grew up. She didn't get the chance.

Fourth of July, for Pauly Likens.

#tdor #transgenderdayofremembrance #transliberation
November 21, 2024 at 7:36 PM
jayorlando.bsky.social
Alright, YouTube you have a point
November 19, 2024 at 2:51 AM