Investor's Lament

Rod

Well-known member
Someday I should write a list
Of all the deals that I have 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 too late.
A very cautious man am I
And that is why I wait to buy.

When tracks rose high on Sixth and Third
The price asked was, I felt absurd;
Those apartment blocks - 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 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 wait to buy.

How Nassau and how Suffolk grew!
North Jersey! Staten Island, too!
When others culled those sprawling farms
And welcomed deals with open arms...
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's so 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!"

anonymous
 
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