< in the pursuit of happiness >

[rayheinrich]

     

        < in the pursuit of happiness >

So this guy comes up to me after the reading and asks
what did my poem mean and I ask which one and he
says it's the one with the mountain in it and I say
that none of the poems I read has a mountain in it
and he says well maybe that's why he doesn't understand
it and I try to be polite because he was one of the
five people who stayed for the whole damn thing and
nobody bought my damned chapbook but I give him a
signed copy and write 'mountain' at the end of the
last poem in the book and he grins and thanks me
and asks me if he can buy me a cup of coffee and I
feel elated like it's all been worthwhile even though
I'm thinking at the same time how pathetically needy
I am to feel this way and I drink my coffee and we talk
about the life insurance he'd like to sell me and I
drink my coffee and I feel ashamed that I feel elated
but I still feel elated.

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