we were both starting hormones
then you were dead
you’re better than the world that survived you
you shouldn’t have let it get to you
you should’ve given it time
i’m a lot happier now
but you’re not
we’ve all grown up and gotten better
but you haven’t
and we need you as much as ever
Catherine B. Krause is a queer disabled trans ex-programmer, lunatic, and former literary publisher. Her poem “[first down]” appears in the recent anthology Rabbit Ears: TV Poems (NYQ Books, 2015), which was reviewed favorably in the Boston Globe and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
