Experience in death, ‘tis not to be taken lightly.
Your mother, your brother, your sister, and your father.
You might be the next one,
So be sure to hold your loved one tightly.
We see our mates fall left and right.
An accident, an illness or overwhelmed with life.
Some come back home only to face the rigors of the world,
Only to be defeated after a long frightful strife.
I used to pray for an honorable death for many moons,
For I did not want to fall prey to the doctors like my old man.
Now, an adult, with a better future in sight,
I simply wear the costume that a family man assumes.
The Beatles once wrote Let It Be, and so I shall,
But I can feel the shadows in the darkness,
Begging, longing for me to join them.
But not right now, not with this morale.
The ghosts, they do await,
They do beg me and bid my name.
They lay in the darkness, in the closet.
These night terrors, how much I hate.
They come to me in my dreams, happy and sad.
They ask things of me that I cannot make sense of.
When they are angry, I cry and beg for forgiveness,
But by then, I am back in this world and I am glad.
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Some people say, “You only go around the world once.” But Nader Gamez can tell you that it can be done a few times. Nader has a wide background of experience in his upbringing, describing himself as “Basically a Chicago street thug combined with border town Texican and a side of Madison Midwesterner.” He graduated with a BA in International Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a minor in drinking.
Since then, he has worked several law enforcement and correctional jobs starting with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, the Waukesha Police Department, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and Department of Health Services, and Mendota Mental Health Institute. He also competed in amateur boxing as well as with local rugby teams. Currently, he spends his time writing about his past successes and failures, showing future boxers the best ways to avoid a severe concussion, and striving to make the perfect spinach quiche.
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