When I chose the optional theme for April, I was thinking of my father's oft-quoted maxim that "The only certainties in life are death and taxes", with the hope that your responses would take some liberties with it. What I did not anticipate is that the certainty of death would claim him in March, before his 95th May birthday. The other certainty, taxes, is still to come, since the government will want some portion of his pittance of an estate. In the end, he was right about that too, as he was right about a great many things. May he enjoy his well-earned rest. His memory will be a blessing to all who knew him. However, life goes on, and guidelines for submitting to the May issue of Verse-Virtual can be found HERE. Jim Lewis, Editor