How do you class yourself my friend,
The bright young Wall Street father’s son?
A thick alumni bulletin
Finds you one pinstripe in a Trend.
Would you walk hatless on the street
And blame a baseball game on May,
Are you a bull or a bear today
When spring and averages meet?
Or do you find yourself misplaced,
Write verses on the fate of man,
Play the piano when you can
Without being ambushed and disgraced?
How do you class yourself? A file
Rejects a rhyme, but if you care
Look out the window on a dare
And play the seasons for a while.
Or if you must, put down the phone
And watch the ticker tape again,
This also calls for courage: then
You’ll have to play this hunch alone.
This poem was originally included as one of two under the title “Two Poems” in the Spring 1947 edition of the student magazine Dimensions. Alison Kimball Bradford was the Delaware State Poet Laureate in 1961.