By Nolo Segundo
He came to the restaurant with his 36 year old daughter who I said looked radiant in her first-time pregnancy. We were eating outside that rare summer day that smelled more of heaven than earth and my wife and I had got there first... so I had prepared myself for meeting my friend of half a century after almost two years and two major operations on his part (a triple by-pass and prostate cancer as he neared the ninth decade-- I almost wondered if he was showing off, a Superman of old age). Still, my heart creaked a bit when I saw old Gus and young Kate coming to our table: he was smaller, slower, less exact in stature and speaking and I had to strain to hear him even though he sat close to me but none of that mattered for a miracle happened-- the subtle but resolute miracle found in the bones of liking, the bones of friendship and the unbreakable bones of love as all those months since two old men last hugged had vanished as though we had dreamt that lost time and now we were once again awake….
Nolo Segundo, pen name of L.j.Carber, became a published poet in his 8th decade in over 170 literary journals in 13 countries. A trade publisher has released 3 collections in paperback: The Enormity of Existence [2020]; Of Ether and Earth [2021]; and Soul Songs [2022]. These titles reflect the awareness he’s had for over 50 years since having an NDE whilst almost drowning in a Vermont river: That he has—IS—a consciousness that predates birth and survives death, what poets since Plato have called the soul.
Academy of the Heart And Mind 