Selecting a Reader by Ted Kooser

First, I would have her be beautiful,

and walking carefully up on my poetry

at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,

her hair still damp at the neck

from washing it. She should be wearing

a raincoat, an old one, dirty

from not having money enough for the cleaners.

She will take out her glasses, and there

in the bookstore, she will thumb

over my poems, then put the book back

up on its shelf.

She will say to herself,

"For that kind of money, I can get

my raincoat cleaned." And she will.

-- Ted Kooser

[Ted Kooser is the 13th U.S. Poet Laureate. This poem is included in "Poetry I 80  -- A Turning Back To Poetry" an Anthology complied by Billy Collins. There are many wonderful contemporary poets within this book. Billy did a stand up job in compiling such wonderful poetry and prose.]