INTO THE ARMS OF GOD
In my time of dying,
do not arrive with false hope
or cliched promises.
Remedies betraying a cure,
as so many have gone before.
Rather,
bring me the kiss
of my first girlfriend.
The pat on the back
of my best pal.
Summon my mischievous mates of boyhood
to gather ’round me once again.
Huddled, in a warm love of camaraderie.
Wearing proud beautiful smiles of invincibility,
those rosy red cheeks of Autumn, cold and windy.
Where we played tag football in the parking lot
behind the red brick school of our beginning.
At days end, the crimson dusk sky of October
a canopy to our immortality.
Where I skip and bolt like a colt
catching the touchdown pass
to a chorus of cheers that lift me up.
Radiating a happiness stronger than any death.
Leaping in the pure pleasure of an innocent joy
with the glowing face of an angel ecstatic;
into the arms of God.
I was born across the bridge from Boston, Massachusetts, in Cambridge, as July 4th fireworks exploded over the Charles River, just a stone’s throw from Harvard University. At age two, my family moved to Somerville, Ma.,where I was raised in a rough blue-collar environment, playing many sports. In 1998 I relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. Here, I work among special needs children and teach martial arts. Poetry began in high school, but took off in a more dedicated way in later years, along with resuming music studies, guitar. My poems are published in various anthologies; including Impressions, Prism, and the Mighty Voices Of Thunder Series, sponsored by the international poetry website, “Allpoetry.” I was a featured poet in Lyrical Somerville February 2015, a Boston based publication, as well as being an “Editor’s Front Page Pick,” for the month of March 2016 on Allpoetry. A defining moment that contributed significantly to further interest in writing was a First Place Award from the International Poetry Fellowship, for my poem, “Among Fields of Cotton.” Presently, I am happy to have the opportunity to explore various forms of poetry with Mr. Bruce Isaacson, Poet Laureate of Clark County Nevada.