every once in a while

a poem from the weekend:

"stock market"

Downtown

in Boston's financial district

-- State Street

an office building

with fifty floors

glass and steel.

Out the window,

blue sky and

the tops of other

buildings.

Stockbrokers,

desk after desk,

by the window

& up on the second level

all in rows

wearing similar clothes

like the little girls

in hats

in the Madeline books.

- - - - - - -

Sometimes in the office and in the elevator

Mel Aronson and I

would talk;

(he was "old"

and I wanted to

learn from him).

"I wonder if I should

take the test and

be a broker.

It seems like

an interesting business."

He answered me,

very seriously,

"It's a greedy business."

- - - - - - -

In the years since

As work

experiences

and

aspirations

changed, evolved --

I've recalled

that sentence,

every once in a while.

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