I Was a Ferry Among the Stars
A poignant exploration of grief, memory, and the enduring connection to lost loved ones. In the streets of a city haunted by absence, solace is found in the eternal presence of those who have passed.
When the wind walked me up & down Rossville Ave.,
, I wore the yellow shirt you bled out in
& brought us everywhere.
I made my rounds as a starling
in this city some dead never return to.
I carried the three syllables of your name
in the open fields between my teeth
along with broken leaves & bits of wood. Each letter,
a pile of sand lime bricks. You lived
in my star-rubbed breast & nowhere else.
The buried never stop arriving
in small words. The buried never stop reminding me
we have forever & not enough hours
to call the salt of one another home.
I grow full, then made empty again.
This is everything I know of family, the treasured blood & spirit.
I keep the days from ending
by not allowing the sepia men who look like me to wilt.
I never know abandon
when it comes to my fallen.
I shove my curled toes into humid air & feel closer to every one.
I know the Lord’s low voice, His plainsong,
through all I refuse to waste.
“I Was a Ferry among the Stars” from Greater Ghost (c) 2024 by Christian J. Collier. Reprinted with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved.
About the author
Christian J. Collier
Christian J. Collier is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides inChattanooga, Tennessee. He is the author ofGreater Ghost(Four Way Books, 2024), and the chapbookThe Gleaming of the Blade, the 2021 Editors’ Selection from Bull City Press. His work has appeared inThe Atlantic,Poetry,December, and elsewhere.
Thank you for such powerful work! And thank you for publishing Mr. Collier’s work Salvation South!
Deb Bowen