On Leaving Law School Sept 1978

Water base paint
A pungent smell on the
                          new walls
Of an old room above
                          ninth avenue.
Fraternity men and other
                           ambitions
Tick toward their degrees
                           and dates
And I throw away - they
                                  say -
The torpor of my case books
Bring on the shrinks!
And I will write a play
And drink martinis
While damn good jazz
                   and somebody else'
Bach records
Belt away at the Puritan
                       devils.

Easing into art.
Nobody that knows me
                    is looking!
The old friends are gone -
And the relatives.
And the new friends
Are already there,
Where the muse haunts
                    the room
And pays the rent.
Something so much fun
Just might be wicked
But let me risk it!
I think I have a right
                 to know
The new creature
                 I'm becoming.