John Northcutt Young

The uncertainty of life is pondered in this collection of sixty-five poems about faith, hope, and love.

Six short stories about life. A slacker decides to become a life coach in "HOW TO LIVE LIFE". "THINGS TO DO IN MY NEXT LIFE" is a top ten list. A preacher fresh out of the Seminary eats Easter dinner with a dysfunctional Southern family in "SEEKING THE LIVING". A nine-year-old boy ponders "MR. BELCHER'S KILLING" at the supper table. A common cold becomes a life changer in "THE PLEASURE OF DYING". And an unpublished writer decides to write "A NOTE".

Society has buried those branded outcast in unmarked graves, at cross-roads, and outside the cemetery fence. Crossbones Graveyard is a famous, or infamous, example. IN MEMORY OF is my version of this cruel custom. It's the story of an unmarked grave outside the cemetery fence closer to Mobile than Montgomery, wedged between woods and water, in a place nobody goes. According to folklore, Thomas John Sutton, 14, is buried under.Thomas loves Esther, but she isn't accepted in Canaan because of her bastard birth. After discovering the secret of his birth, Thomas fears he'll be treated the same. It's another example of two teenagers struggling against an unforgiving society.

Donnie Lawrence, owner of Eternal Tranquil Chapel, is an over-the-top clich . His mother moved into his lower Alabama waterfront home and keeps asking, "When are you getting married?" adding "I want grandchildren before I die," and "The patter of little feet will be like beating to my heart. "Coming out doesn't help. Neither does blurting out a name before the groom-to-be knows. Confessing to his receptionist/secretary does ease Donnie's conscience. Still, she winds up being his mother's Plan B. No wonder Donnie is having a midlife crisis enabled by the ghost of his dead father. Life changes following the death of a child. Kumbaya Night, featuring a drag queen gospel trio at Dearly Beloved, furthers the transformation.

The organ bellows shrills and groans. Revival at the Damascus Southern Baptist Church has begun. Mildred, sitting in the pew dedicated to her late husband, shakes her head inside and sighs. I was hoping Revival would rejuvenate me this year, but that would take a bigger miracle than the parting of the Red Sea and turning water into wine combined. It's going to be a mess, a complete disaster.Francis Paul Day, an ex-alcoholic junkie, is the speaker. For Mildred this is beyond blasphemy. And, if matters weren't horrible enough, that heathen has the same christened name as my beloved son A heathen not worthy to spit polish my boy's boots Mildred's Second Blessing confirms her holier-than-thou belief, but after choking on Communion she doubts. Will her faith crumble because of a family secret?

The good always die young.Ten-year-old Roy Brown hears this after his sixteen-year-old brother Billy, the Eagle's star basketball player, is killed in a wreck before the annual rival game against the Tigers. Alone in the kitchen before dawn the morning of Billy's funeral, Roy remembers that day.