Rich Youmans

Life after Death

We turned on every light in the living room, as if that would protect us. The news anchor gave her grim updates: limbs from century-old oaks blocking streets . . . a plow skidding head-on into a mini-van, killing the driver. . . an ambulance stuck behind headlight-high drifts . . . Then everything in the room went black, leaving only afterimages floating like startled ghosts. I thought of the van’s driver and wondered: Is this how death comes? No bright portal, no last reel, no trumpets. Just a simple not-here. I listened to the high wind rushing like a river, let it carry me along. Then I felt your fingers on the back of my hand, a light touch that could only be yours.

snow
on
snow

digging
deep

this
other
worldly
blue

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About the Author

Rich Youmans lives on Cape Cod with his wife, Alice. His books include All the Windows Lit (Snapshot Press, 2017) and Head-On (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2018).