My dream, selling
all my books to pay rent
in Wisconsin, after the M.A.,
how I bought most
of the same again
studying for the Ph.D.
at the University of Hawai’i.
I wake up soaked in sweat.
I can’t imagine
how much that cost me
in the end.
In the end,
well, it’s not all over yet.
Ira says 45 years
of smoking represent
a heap of money
I’d have had,
my retirement stash.
I have that dream of waste too.
I can imagine, a dream,
rocking in a rocking chair,
reading the older books,
breathing easily the purest air.
Lanning Lee 