Everything hurts. I engage muscles that have been single for so long they have cobwebs. For days, my hip twinges, my neck side-eyes me. I roll my shoulders in an attempt to calm them of their hysterics. I must say that not all fat bodies are out of shape, but this one is. And we’ve only learned 30 seconds of the 3-minute and 42-second routine! My body surprises me when my arms support all my weight in a reverse snake, when I fold in a way I haven’t folded before, when it not only does the move but looks so good doing it someone asks me to show them how. I have never tried to be sexy on purpose, to use my expression to seduce, to use the expanse of my flesh like the call of a siren on a stage but I am learning, and it is easier to tap into than I could have imagined. I walked into a dance studio uncertain that my body could body like the rest of them but I strutted out of it like a panther on the prowl.
Talicha J. is a Black queer poet and teaching artist. She’s a Pushcart Prize nominee and a Collaborating Fellow at The Poetry Lab. Her work has been published in several literary magazines, and her chapbook Taking Back the Body is now out with Beyond the Veil Press (2024).
