Summer blacktop and good words on paper,

Substances that can burn

Your soles and your soul.

How many years did I spend

Being scorched by hot sidewalks?

How many English classes did I take

That sent fire sliding under my skin?

I released countless precious moments

I’ll never get back

Searing my life away with daydreams.

Imagining someone I longed to be:

A published author of renown,

A thin raconteur

Pulling laughter and admiring glances

From girls baring tanned legs

As they sat in their droves on the Spring grass

In the university quad.

How often I sat alone,

On reliable, unyielding pavement,

Grasping at the parchment of the Western canon

...

Please subscribe to keep reading.