Upon Finding a Letter
folded in a book
dusty and unread these forty-five years
Brautigan sits below the Hollywood sign
listens to music
in yellowed newspaper print, the Free Press
Kerouac wrote to his lover from Europe
She should visit him soon
before he dies
fly to the Spanish coast and live with him in a hut by the sea
where Kerouac opines, “God is Alone”
A photo of figures ice skating on a lake
a recipe for a Hot Toddy
adorn the underside of Kerouac’s letter
Tom Conlan lives, writes, and tends his modest grape vines in the highlands of Northern Michigan. He has captained a Coast Guard Cutter, sailed the world’s lakes and oceans, and now searches for the elusive brook trout in backwater streams. His lyrical memoir “My Journey Begins Where the Road Ends…” was released in June 2017, by Mission Point Press. Tom’s work has appeared in print in Vine Leaves Literary Journal, Issue #12, in the print Anthology, Puppy Love, in Tulip Tree Review, in the anthology, “The Water Holds No Scars,” in QU Literary Review, and in The Avocet. A new story, ‘Black Fly’ is forthcoming in the Walloon Writers Review. His work was chosen as a finalist for the Annie Dillard Prize in the Bellingham Review. Tom attended the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and a Master of Science from the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California.
thanks….god is alone…..