He sat me down
at a cafe
with a black coffee
and a legal pad
“Look Bruce, you’re 34, you’ve got to
get serious about your future.”
“OK,” I said
“There are only four foolproof ways
to create unimaginable wealth in this world.”
He made a list:
1. Build a successful business
2. Buy and sell real estate
3. Invest shrewdly in the market
4. Inherit
There was a long silence
after the list hit the
legal pad
This was going to get
uncomfortable
and we both knew it
He sipped at his coffee
I slurped at mine
A blue 1972
Volkswagon Beetle
pulled into the
parking lot outside
I stared down into the
oily black in my mug
and imagined
managing employees
Hemingway walked in
and ordered a hot reuben
I thought of the
NASDAQ Composite
and how I might
learn and earn
Emily Dickinson was at the
cash register
staring directly at me
I broke her gaze
and remembered all the
great real estate books
available at Amazon
Van Gogh stumbled out of
the bathroom glancing
our way as he passed
I knew there was no check
coming in the mail from a
distant uncle wealthy and forgotten
Sylvia Plath was standing
in the kitchen oddly close to
the oven, her hand on
the cook’s shoulder
The clock over the counter
ticked off the minutes
the hours
the years
It had been long enough
“Look, thanks for your
concern, but my advisors
have all this handled already,” I said
He didn’t like the sound of that
And he would never
understand
So I threw three bucks on the table
and walked out the door behind
Dostoevsky
who turned
handed me a pair of dice
and walked away
The sun was high
and blinding
Storm clouds
were forming
behind the ridge
I shook the dice
in my hand
and turned
left
_____________________________________
Robert Bruce is one of the most read, linked, loved and reviled poets working on the web. He writes at KNIFE GUN PEN every Monday from Portland, Ore. Get more over at Twitter. If this did something to you or for you, go ahead and spread it around...
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This is gorgeous. Any comment is going to appear pithy by comparison.
I’m sweating, smiling and thinking. Damn, that’s razor sharp.
Deserves a link with your “Best Of” list.
You have got to do this one in a podcast. Your voice behind this one would make it absolute perfection!
And yes that’s a stroke, but an honest one. ;-)
Terrifc and fantastic. Bravo, Bruce.
Funny, I just picked up the Bukowski docu at the libe tonight for another viewing and thought of you.
You remind me a lot of him, which is a *huge* compliment from me.
Hell, what am I saying? Getting a *comment* from me is a huge compliment, these days.
Well, done, my young and relatively sober friend…
Oh hell, nothing is foolproof.
The only way to get rich is to risk everything, and then some.
I like this one.
Robert: Printed and taped to the wall right in front of me.
Printed on nice stock, and put in a shadow box along with a pair of dice, this would make a great gift.
Yeah.
With u.
The words you can have, my friend, it’s not like I can make them up. It fits with something the guy with the legal pad would say.
Right on.
This was going to get
uncomfortable
and we both knew it
That’s a great stanza, Robert. And a good reminder of what happens when people with conflicting worldviews sit down for coffee.
It can be really really uncomfortable.
(Peter, good to see you here!)
Thanks for this, Mr. Bruce. Thanks for this.
RBeezy — Haven’t stopped by in a while, but I think I was lucky enough to catch a classic within the first couple minutes of my visit. I wish everyone could read this.
I see I need to fix the spacing on the comment numbers on trackbacks, too. I hope nobody else sees that.
Robert, beyond brilliant.
Pearson, try to get your act together, will ya? ;)
holy shit.
okay. screw reality. i’m giving in and pursuing the english major writing minor. you’re just too brilliant.
tasty
Was it randomstance that brought me to this post first? A new initiate to the Knife Gun Pen of Robert Bruce. I could have plucked any one but I’m in love with the number four…and now with your words.
when you got it with words, you got it.
and when you use what you got to tell the story we all live, live true or just go for the bright shiny, you speak for us all.
as all real art does when we live it.
thanks.
YES! thank you. thank you. this is magnificent and makes me so happy and gives me such hope and joy and peace and courage. i am sooooooooo blessed to have stumbled upon you and this and such an incredible dream in your words. thank you. thank you.
2:45 am. Waiting for the morphine to kick in.
[Prescribed-neuropathy]
No AIDS, no diabetes, just neuropathy.
59 years old with no money
but a world of memories.
Wish I could do it all over again.
Just the same.
Thanks for the poem.
infantile tripe
johnny – Thanks so much. Now go suck it.
very mature
Oh right, sorry.
I thank you so much for your erudite criticism above. “Infantile tripe” is simultaneously profound and profitable.
Must have been blind (and infantile) in missing it.
touchy touchy. i guess publishing something online does immediately disallow any criticism. next time i suggest turning off comments or simply keeping things to yourself if you’re going to be so hostile and defensive about criticism.
Please. Don’t be so dramatic.
Criticism is always welcome around here, as are you john. But sometimes it’ll be responded to, so if you’re not willing to defend your two little words above, go grab a copy of The New Yorker.
You inspired me. Thank you.
Hey man! You are the guy I gave my dice to in the coffee shop? That’s awesome, I was just telling my friend about that the other day, I was all like, “so this one time, I was in a coffee shop..” and told him the whole story. Then I’m stumbling today and come across this page. Haha serendipity eh? Well, I hope those dice are treating you well. Enjoyed the story, see ya around.
This is amazing, so clever, I love it!
totally photoshopped, the shadows are all pixelated.
No seriously though, this is great in it’s freeform. I may very well copy it to my local drive since chances are I’ll never return to this site again, since I just Stumbled to it in the first place.
where were Donald Trump and Bill Gates while all this was happening ?
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. :)
I agree, I totally agree. but then, I am not the picture of worldly success.
Oh, and as a father, sometimes the mind of an infant is more profound than all the adults in the world.
And tripe, in the hands of an expert, can be a culinary piece of art.