Hardy Coleman

If sadness is a nagging doubt,

            well, here's an antidote:

With every breath you fill

            fall in love,

then exhale.

Some of the Reasons

That it is fragile

            and when cracked

may not mend.

That it can be shattered

            by negligence or anger

and the shards shall slice your flesh.

That it can lead you astray

            and the crumbs you've left as markers

have long since been devoured

            by the songbirds of circumstance.

That it may lie and cheat

            on no more than a whim,

a pretty face, a fast car

            or the heat of an old flame.

That it is burning

            like your house down,

your barn, livestock and crops,

            but you've been freezing all this winter.

That it is bright

            enough to steal sight from your eyes

on this night so long and dark

            that you may never see again.

That it is like a puppy who,

            God willing, you will outlive,

then bury down below the garden

            and nourish with your tears.

That it will become a memory

            with parts pared out on the editor's floor and

a scene, here and there,

            like a scar, still tender.

That all of the above,

            given time, are guaranteed.

That it is yearned for.

            That it is needed.

That it is sustenance.

            That it is Holy.

That it

            is what has brought us

into being.

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Hardy Coleman gave a few bucks and change to an Elvis Presley impersonator who was attempting to impress a girl in a mink stole, but who’s Cadillac was nearly out of gas. He sat next to a Harlem Globetrotter on a New York City subway and they shared a couple of dirty jokes. He resides in Minneapolis with Patricia Enger, drag racing queen of Jackson County, Minnesota and living muse for much of his work.