Made a couple extra dollars last week
well actually it was a check to be
exact and now
it’s gone

I used it as a bookmark for the time
being, but forgot which book I left
it in

Now on a brisk Tuesday morning in October
the only thing that stands between me and
a smooth cup of coffee is a stack of
crinkled books

Slowly but surely, I ****** up the tattered copies
of Dickinson, and Tolstoy, and Lawrence, and Byron
tossing through the pages

Not a drop of worry enters my mind, knowing it’s
in one of the books but I just have to find it
and hell, it’s going to be sticking out of the top
there’s no way I could have misplaced it too bad
I’m not a complete fool after all

“Just gotta get through the books and
all the money is mine,
all the money in the world”
I say musing myself

You know, I actually went to a place
for four years straight and I swear they told me
the exact same thing

“Just get through the books and you’ll have
all the money in the world” was all I heard relentlessly
from the teachers, students, and myself
all while I was giving them
all the money I had in the world yet here I stand broke
scraping for change

I guess I am a fool after all