Poetry Editor Andrew Walker on today’s poem:

“What Needs Doing” by Jenna Jaco is a reminder that the words “I love you” are not heard but seen, that love is an action more than it is a feeling. Jaco’s poem lives in this action, wielding a powerful momentum that pushes the reader through each couplet. Like love, “What Needs Doing” is sweet and silly and surprising, crafted with purpose and given as one would a gift.

What Needs Doing

Once, pink and breathing hard,
I tried explaining bell hooks to my mom,

just the stuff about love being an action,
a ball you get up and roll on the daily.

My persistent dorodango. When
I say I love someone I say it like

I polish the brass lamp and hand them
the cloth. If I love you I’ve procured a cloth.

I’ve found a cupboard for the cloths.
I love you as in if you wanted

to change your gender marker I would
FUCK SHIT UP at the DMV.

I love you meaning I press the button
that gives you a sandwich. I press the button

that maybe does not kill you.
When I love you I catch your head.

If my mom texts now, she does not say
I love you. Instead: sending love.

A box I need to come sign for,
except I’m up on my high horse,

and I admit I don’t see the heads
I do not catch, or all the buttons

I press, or who made them, or
who makes the sandwiches.

From my woke gay horse
I am rolling my love ball for you.

On bad days I think this
is not so different from the box

and the sending. I am handing you
a cloth from a sus cupboard.

I am cleaning our lamp. I am standing
in an imaginary DMV ready to bristle

like my dad when he took his gun
to the zoo, when they were like, sir,

you can’t have that here.
I am sitting on the ground

cupping my hands for your head.
Receive them.

Jenna Jaco (they/she) is the author of Mall Water (Kith Books, 2024), a poetry collection about fluidity, rage, and shopping. Follow Jenna on Twitter @jennajaco

If you would like to show your appreciation for the writer’s work, you can send them a tip through venmo: @Jenna-Jaco