Facing Reality

For years I have hauled around
Classic literature, telling myself that

One of these days I will have time to read.
Until I faced the reality that,

Although I like the Poe I’ve read,
I will never read his Complete Works;

I have never liked Ibsen,
And would happily never read his plays again;

Mandelbaum won the National Book Award for
His Aeneid, so I don’t really need another translation;

I am not a bored king, waiting for Scherezade
To tell me serial stories every night (goodbye, Arabian Nights);

That I attempted Doctor Zhivago in college
And it was too long and too cold, and my attention span is even less now.

I am facing reality, a book at a time.