In celebration of National Poetry Month, I am inviting several poet friends to join me in my daily endeavor of paying poetic attention to the world. This week I am humbled and thrilled to be sharing the practice with my dear friend TC Tolbert, who was recently named the Poet Laureate of Tucson, AZ.  TC often identifies as a trans and genderqueer feminist, collaborator, dancer, and poet but really s/he’s just a human in love with humans doing human things. Find out more and follow him here.

i’ve never seen a missile
rip through the sky,
not in my real life.
and this empyrean blaze
is not really fire,
but a word we use
to mean beautiful, or
that which has
the power to end us.
still, i know i am holding
an unwinding spool,
its precious gold filament
steadily unraveling away from me.
this i can feel
in my very real hand.

photo and poem by katherine ferrier ©2017

contraction is
a word that fights
to keep alive
its opposite – without
hyperbole and not
every day but some
days and even
though that’s not most
days some days
are still days just
enough – when I was
a child I wanted
to help you God – here
I am pointing – no
bones yet hardened
inside my fingers – can I
help you find you – passing
the collection plate –
I suppose I
have been given
hunger because the mouth
would pray only
for the mouth

photo and poem by TC Tolbert ©2017