Franklin & Marshall, Wheaton, Gettysburg...

I thought about the rain yesterday.
It was raining when I found out...
the ground slick with mud; the sidewalk wriggling with worms,
saturated with water, the smell of wet concrete.
I hate the rain.

...Elizabethtown, Susquehanna, Swarthmore...

I cried a little, of course. It's only natural.
The list is long - too long for me.
"An overwhelming number of qualified applicants" it said,
the letter stained with ink. Overwhelming.
Funny, that. I'm "qualified."

...Boston, SUNY, Mansfield...

Now it doesn't really matter, I guess.
I'm here, paying less, earning credits,
except now all I can think of is the ever-present "unless,"
the "what if" and I look toward the future
"what could have been"

...Brown, Penn, Harvard...

What are the odds?
Not good; I guess they never were.
"That's just fate," you say, just the roll of the proverbial dice,
except God doesn't throw dice,
I don't think (enough).

Princeton Princeton Princeton

Dreams are deferred as I am,
thrown to the wind and scattered like rain,
floating for another day, another lifetime.
For now I'm stuck on their piece of paper,
Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.