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 seemed I
always hesitate,
Then make my mind
up much too late.
A very cautious
man am I
And that is
why I never buy.
When tracts rose
high on Sixth & Third,
The prices asked
I felt absurd;
Whole
block-fronts 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 hip 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,
then 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 can not
be enticed.
For everything’s
so overpriced.
The deals of
yesteryear are dead;
The market’s
soft—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 red man
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!”
Author
Unknown