LITMIR.BIZ

      Selecting a Reader

      First, I would have her be beautiful,

      and walking carefully up on my poetry

      at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,

      her hair still damp at the neck

      from washing it. She should be wearing

      a raincoat, an old one, dirty

      from not having money enough for the cleaners.

      She will take out her glasses, and there

      in the bookstore, she will thumb

      over my poems, then put the book back

      up on its shelf. She will say to herself,

      “For that kind of money, I can get

      my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.