Selecting A Reader

First, I would have him be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
his hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. He should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
 He will take out his glasses, and there
in the bookstore, he will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. He will say to himself,
“For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned.” And he will.

Ted Kooser (*1939)