the road not taken

maybe spending a few

hundred

thousand dollars

on getting a degree in

Philosophy

after high school was a bad idea.

i'm pondering

this decision

as i sit on the balcony

of my one-bedroom apartment

overlooking 

a Dunkin Donut

and a Shell

station.

i know everything there is to know

about Aristotle

and Plato,

Confucius and Kant.

i can quote Voltaire or Dante

at the drop

of a hat,

but so what.

at the moment

i'm eating a bowl

of Captain Crunch cereal

with a sliced

banana as my old dog

lies in the corner,

breathing heavily because

of asthma.

i can hear the call of the harness

races

through the woods

and smell

the cigar smoke and manure

in the warm wind.

i should have followed

the advice

of my father and become

an electrician, or a plumber,

a car mechanic or

a house painter.

i'd be living it up

on the hill

in a big house if i had

taken that course.

i'd be floating around 

a kidney shaped pool like

a movie star,

drinking pina coladas

while my fiancé Loretta,

in her red bikini,

does a swan dive

off the board.