By John McPherson
Adrift on the Sea of Tranquility
“Dad, do you know what day it is?”
“Yes, it’s my birthday.”
“I never forget my birthday,”
“And how old are you?”
“Sixty-nine, of course.”
A repeated conversation we had each year as we celebrated his sixty-ninth birthday for seven years— until the crystal clear waters of his everyday madness swept him away.
John McPherson is the current president of Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas, president of Gin Creek Poets, and past president of White County Creative Writers. He writes poems, short stories, and letters to the editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.