Tom Walters
LightNews LightNews
banner
detritivore-core.bsky.social
Tom Walters
@detritivore-core.bsky.social
190 followers 300 following 52 posts
Barely corporeal; poet, writer, creature 🌱💀🌻
trans/cripple/queer/fat/not fucking sorry

They/them
Posts Replies Media Videos
detritivore-core.bsky.social
The supreme court don't get to decide who I am, actually.
The text of a poem. The open reads: I promise I am trying to want to live. when I die I will die a faggot. I'll die a tranvestite a transsexual a troon a trap I will die queer and ugly and hopelessly in love. I’ll die indifferent to your laws your papers the name on my passport I'll die surrounded by friends and I'll be the faggiest ash to ever catch on the wind. I’ll die with prayer beneath my tongue let me tell you my gods do not have lawyers they piss where they please my gods have brass knuckles and pointed teeth my gods keep deadnames curled in their fists my gods do not fear death but they wish they could live. there is a future for my people out here somewhere, full of promise and bone. I hear it rattle on the exhale. when you people meet our angels they will tell you be afraid
April 17, 2025 at 8:07 AM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
This was my most popular poem by far on both Instagram and twitter, so I feel like it warrants a reshare here. Solidarity and love to my trans siblings, today and every day 🏳️‍⚧️✊
The text of a poem. The poem reads: I'm asking you to please stop killing my friends every trans person in the world is beautiful today I find us in the dark leaving nightclubs and kissing the first slip of dawn. bringing vegan cakes to the community café. pay as you feel. we can afford one mastectomy between us. pass around the same ten bucks in circles a small dance of hope. I sleep safest when someone I love is awake. dig up healthcare from cracks in the pavement. remove a teaspoon of flesh once a month from now until forever maybe then our bodies could be home. take photos for posterity. record every moment of change. don't trust anyone who hasn't heard of testogel. hope I get to see your face again hope by then it belongs to you. my arms overflow with our curses. I drop them in a back alley too heavy to carry any further and I cry with the voice of a church organ sing with the voice of a church organ fill myself with promises I am wealthy with funeral ash and I say I love you and I say I'm sorry and I say nothing that you don't already know
January 27, 2025 at 1:21 AM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
I've been watching Arcane on Netflix and like any poet my response to feeling things strongly is to make poetry.
I'm actually really proud of this one? But I don't quite know what to do with it. Because it's s fanfic I suppose. Are there poetry journals for fanfic?
Text of a poem. The poem reads: So you gave me a flare for the day that I needed you most and I never pulled the pin because I wanted this To be a promise you would keep. I wanted To give you that much. My last gasp of powder. I won't make you into a person who didn't show up. All those years of never asking. Held The smoke furled up in my chest; Of course I changed texture! Grew less soft and pretended I wanted my hair Round my ankles. I never cut it, you know. Couldn't bear to shed a part of me that You once touched. For so long I have stowed The idea of you in my pocket. Now come and be real with me, girl. I love you still. That's what this is. Plume of blue above the city. Exhaling at last. Oh, I swallowed the words long ago but sister, i love you i love you i love you i love you i love-
December 3, 2024 at 3:01 PM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
Text of a poem. The poem reads: Underneath it all, the love looks Like this. For all the fear and wanting I contain, the tar and the sulphur in My throat; the truth of this love is so Tender. Velvet fleshed as a raspberry, And somehow never ruptured. We are Soft as an old cotton blanket, yielding In easy content to warm bodies. Long Ago I smothered some part of myself Who is just now returning to breath. He Unravels like a cardigan that no longer Fits, remembers how it felt to spill love Across the carpet and eat blackberries Fat from the brambles, free from any Fear of the stain
November 22, 2024 at 9:53 PM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
Poem for a new trans man

#naturewriting #poetsofbsky #transpoetry
The text of a poem. The poem reads: The year is long, and has carried The sweet smell of grief on her breath. She has laid her tender hand On so many things you hold dear; Took two baby birds from your garden In cupped palms in spring, while you Grew out your facial hair. She was Cold, and wore the body of a slug At your door. Somehow, you Managed to keep looking out Of the window. On the precipice Of winter, two fine badgers traced Her footsteps to your lawn, fed fat On the peanuts you gave them. I hope you understand that you Have built something, here. Left a porch light on while the world Sat sickly and grey. The year is turning, Casts tomorrow in her wake. When she brings your long-tailed tits Back home, you will greet them with A different voice. One that belongs to you At last. And they will hear you, will not Hesitate to look you in the eye. They know you already, Have known you all this time.
November 16, 2024 at 11:27 AM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
Games writing for Zombies, Run!

Drastically different from everything else I do and also far and away the best job I've ever had; I write for the narrative video game and fitness app Zombies, Run!

I have four released episodes since being taken on as a trainee at the end of 2022
A promo image for episode 10 of season 10 of Zombies, Run! It shows a figure staring over an array of CCTV monitors, with the text "MISSION 10 OUT NOW" in the top left corner. A promo image for episode 11 of season 10 of Zombies, Run! It shows two figures skiing downhill, with the text "MISSION 11 OUT NOW" in the top left corner.
November 14, 2024 at 5:28 PM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
My Body is a Response I am Willing to Expend with Burning Eye Books

My debut poetry collection on my experience of coming of age with an acquired disability, and how it shifted my relationships with loved ones, education, and nature.
A photo of Tom, a fat white person with bright pink hair, showing off a copy of their poetry collection. They wear round glasses and bright green lipstick. The cover of the book is deep purple with an illustration of a bird skull surrounded by plants.
November 14, 2024 at 4:50 PM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
Whales of Iceland (DYCP with support from The Writing Squad)

A project researching the Natural History of Cetaceans, and how artistic expression can be used to improve public engagement with museum collections.
A picture of Tom lying on their back underneath a life sized sculpture of a blue whale. Their wheelchair is visible in the background. Tom, a fat white person with bright pink hair and a big yellow coat, reading a museum display.
November 14, 2024 at 4:40 PM
detritivore-core.bsky.social
Quick tour of my past and current projects:

BODYBREAD for Warwick Arts Centre

An exploration of the ways that disabled people depend on intra-community care, BODYBREAD reflects on what it means to give someone your body, and imagines a new religion of sickness, love, and yeast.
A close up of the face on a fat white person with bright blue hair. They are covered with a thick creamy batter that drips down the right side of their face. A fat white person with bright blue hair and draped in green and gold fabric cradles a rustic loaf of bread.
November 14, 2024 at 4:29 PM