A RELUCTANT MICHIGAN INVESTOR'S LAMENT
I hesitate to make a list
of all the countless deals I've missed;
Bonanzas that were in my grip-
I watched them through my fingers slip;
The windfalls which I should have bought
Were lost because I over-thought
I thought of this, I thought of that,
I could have sworn I smelled a rat.
And while I thought things over twice,
Another grabbed them at the price.
It seems I always hesitate
Then make my mind up much to late.
A very cautious man am I
And that is why I never buy
When tracks rose high on Sixth and Third
The prices asked I felt absurd
Whole blockfronts bleak and black with soot-
Were priced at thirty bucks a foot!
I wouldn't even make a bid
But others did-yes others did:
When Tucson was cheap desert land
I could have had a heap of sand
When Phoenix was the place to buy
I thought the climate much too dry
"Invest in Dallas-that's the spot"
My sixth sense warned me I should not.
A very prudent man am I
And that is why I never buy.
A corner here, ten acres there
Compounding values year by year
I chose to think and as I thought
They bought the deals I should have bought
The golden chances I had then
Are lost and will not come again
Today I cannot be enticed
For everything is overpriced
The deals of yesteryear are dead
The market's soft--and so's my head!
Last night I had a fearful dream
I know I wakened with a scream
Some Indians approached my bed
for trinkets on the barrelhead
(In dollar bills worth twenty-four
And nothing less and nothing more)
They'd sell Manhattan Isle to me
The most I'd go was twenty-three
The redmen scowled, "Not on a bet"
And sold to Peter Minuit
At times a teardrop drowns my eye
For deals I had, but did not buy
And now life's saddest words I pen
"If only I'd invested then."