TWO POEMS FOR MY BIRTHDAY

William Hudson Byrd (aka Billy)
3 March 1911 to 13 June 1944

When I was two years old 

We lived in Mississippi— 

And now I’m 79... 

I still want my big brother 

To take me fishing 

And I want my father 

To get out of his airplane 

And come back home. 

                                    

Still Life with Jesus 
Somersaulting from the Sky—
Indigenous Mexican Nativity, 
Two Tulips with Daffodils

A Poem for my 79th Birthday 

Please 

when it’s over 

scatter my ashes 

bones 

whatever 

in the Milky Way. 

Thank you.