Exerpted from ” The Reluctant Investor and Other Light Verse”

I hesitate to make a list of all the countless deals I’ve missed;

Bonanzas that were in my grisp- 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 and Third, the prices asked I felt absurd;whole block-fronts bleak and black with soot- Were priced at thirty bucs 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 everythings 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 redman scowled: “Not on a bet!” and sold to Peter Minuit.

At times a teardrop drowns my evy for deals I had, but did not buy; and now life’s saddest words I pen “If only I had invested then!”