“The Church of Movement” by WITS Student Dorian Hayes
September 27, 2021
prayer is when you’re fourteen years old
riding the bus home from
a protest that ended two hours too late
and the cops running after your friends
because when you’re sitting in that bus seat
humming the lines to the song you were singing but didn’t learn
an old woman will sit next to you
and talk about herself and how
she threw a brick through the window of a car and how
she worked as an illustrator for biology textbooks and how
she believes in you and when she gets off the bus
you smile,
because you just met god.
keep on singing to yourself, sweet child, sweet boy,
but this time a hymn-
to the church of movements and moving
Dorian Hayes wrote this poem while a student at Ballard High School with WITS Writer-in-Residence Rachel Kessler. Dorian read the poem to open for Anthony Doerr who performed as part of SAL Presents on September 28, 2021.