Fred Byrnes
BETTER WAYS TO DIE THAN FROM THIS CORONA VIRUS

Fighting a giant grizzly
Tangling with a lion or tiger
Rolling around in a swamp
with an alligator
Battling side-by-side
with the brave Marines
on Wake Island, Khe San
Or landing with the 4th Infantry Division
on Utah Beach, June 6, 1944
Trading punches in a street fight
with Mike Tyson or George Foreman
Being hanged by the neck
Getting the electric chair
The gas chamber at San Quentin
A firing squad
Lethal injection
Poisoned by a pissed off blonde
from North Carolina
Falling off the Empire State Building
Ah, fuck it…

Having survived a riotous youth during which he freely admits he left his baseball talent in barrooms, FRED BYRNES enrolled at Suffolk Community College in Selden, Long Island in 1977 and began his writing career in the late professor-poet Dan Murray's creative writing courses. Widely published by Street Press, Byrnes holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Dowling College, where he  taught creative writing at the Hausman Center for Disabled Students. Also an accomplished artist, Byrne's paintings have been compared to the likes of Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning.

 

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