my poem, Having Grown Apart, is in Issue 3 of Cool Beans. Here is the poem:

Now that I need not
wake for work
I rise at first light,

tired but present.
It is my time
for contemplation,

although my frivolous thoughts
might make the Buddha
chuckle. Sometimes

I think of you.
How close we were
and how the distance

has grown past reconciliation.
Would you even recognize
me now without prompting?

I’ve thought of writing to you.
I imagine you
still in your childhood home

anxiously opening the envelope,
worried it might be bad news.
I’ve tried, halfheartedly, but find

I have few words to share—
unsettling for someone
who made his way with words.

But, there is a slowing here—
I fear I won’t conquer
the world after all.

Have you?
I don’t suppose so.
Another class graduated

this week—so many plans,
so much horizon,
hourglass be damned.