GRIM REAPER BRINGS GIFTS

Just discovered the College of Charleston's literary magazine Illuminations has accepted my poem THIRST. It will appear in the June 2021 issue. I now have two poems awaiting publication at the same time. Add those to the short story that just appeared in Kestrel, and I'm having a run of publication longer than at any other time in my life. 

Wouldn't you know that would be how it turns out... a run of success just when the Grim Reaper moves into my cellular basement to take up temporary residency there? This morning I was moved to tears and laughter as I took my morning drive. Death made everything feel more alive this morning, even my Barclay's Choice Privileges credit card seemed more colorful, more vibrant in my hand as I offered it to the barista. On my sunny morning dive, for a second, I looked forward to, embraced the experience of dying, a transcendent moment for certain which quickly passed. Then, thinking about my dearest wife, wanting to convince me to stop eating butter as if that will stop the cancer from spreading. To be loved so by that dearest to me of all humans? Wow! More tears of joy. Then laughter as I listened to KBOO, playing an old hit like Crying by Roy Orbison. Suddenly, young love fell into the absurdist camp, all my pain as a young man, all my divorces and love tangles became comedy of the highest order. Wow, such a surge of emotions the Grim Reaper brings with him!