All posts by KerriBerry

My name is Kerri McCaffrey. I am a parent, a transgender teacher of 5th grade in a NJ public school, and poet. I love life, and want to share this love with others. Nature has helped heal me over the years I struggled with my gender. But, like a butterfly emerging from the darkness of the chrysalis, I have found air. While being a transgender teacher made it difficult to become "Kerri", I persevered, and am so glad I did. My poetry changed after my transition. Well, it changed so much that there aren't words. Okay, here are two attempts at words--more authentic.

December, 2015

“December, 2015”–A Poem

Coyotes in Spruce

 

Everywhere I turn
conflict and despair—
people starved and tortured
a world near war.

Closer to home,
a deer carcass rests in the meadow,
ripped to ivory bones—
eyes black with wonderment.

What shall I do, Lord?
I ask in winter fields
talking to you as if talking to myself—
the world thinks I’m crazy.

I am alive
and twilight colors dazzle,
though coyotes are constant and circling
with their insatiable song.

But in the sunset
my eyes reflect you,
purple fire and pink—
my hope, inviolate.

 

Copyrighted,  2016–US Copyright Office, Kerri Nicole McCaffrey

From the book, Raspberry Summers and the Brush of Thorns, (c) 2016

All Rights Reserved.  Photo by Kerri Nicole McCaffrey.