JOHNMICHAEL SIMON POETRY

Walking down Main Street absorbed

in dreaming up some text

for a condominium marketing brochure

 

I nearly bumped into this British fellow

whose bicycle, propped against a tree,

carried a large placard decorated

 

With photographs of three large castles

surrounded by lawns, gardens and rivers,

he was expounding the virtues of castles

 

Castles as homes, castles as investments,

in a loud Hyde Park voice while handing

out brochures to the crowd that had gathered

 

Of course it was all a dream, but on waking

to the news of tumbling markets and failures

of real estate corporations, I couldn’t help

 

Thinking that a castle would probably be

quite a good investment, able to withstand

the vagaries of changing economic winds

 

My wife pointed out that it was a rather

proverbial dream, but all the same I think

I’ll check the listings for any foreclosed castles

 

You know what they say about ill winds