History by Wayne F. Burke

If i had done what

I was going to do long ago

becoming a High School teacher and

coach, I would be long dead, I am

sure: penned in the little town of my birth

with people without imagination enough to dream

and me married, to my High School sweetheart, a nun

in the making, and with kids

a house,

a dog,

a mortgage,

forget it--

I would be early in the cemetery, my tombstone

above ground, flowers on my grave on

anniversary days, and

my footprints all over the

mountains, from me trying to get the hell out

but unable.

Wayne F. Burke's poetry has been widely published in print and online (including in THE DAILY DOPE FIEND). He is author of eight collections of poetry--most recently BLACK SUMMER, Spartan Press, 2021. He lives in Vermont (USA).