The I Ain’t Got No Health Insurance Blues

Too bad I ain’t got no 

            self-help-guru instincts

                        as far as

                                    copping a livable income 

is concerned.

                        I should be able to come up with  

                                    seven

                                    or nine 

                                    or

                                    ten 

                                    or so 

                                    steps

                                    that lead to Psychological Salvation!

                                                Potential titles of bestsellers:

                                                How to Dismantle Your Ego

                                                Slow Down, You’re Thinking Too Fast

                                                We Are They and They Are We

The problem is that I don’t follow 

them steps myself. 

I think to write a book like that 

that you need credentials of super-duper success. 

Why buy a book from someone 

who claims to know the wayful path

but who lives in a tiny two-bedroom duplex house 

on the border of a bad neighborhood?  

So I live on a tree-lined street where doors slam, 

                                                            car alarms blare

                        children squeal 

                                                            leaf blowers roar

                        keyboards quietly click.