The summer slowly changing colors into red orange and brown,
and my father, being proactive
bought a thick green book labeled 'The College Guide'

The book was filled with names and numbers,
involving hundreds of places my eyes had never gazed upon

I sat at my desk, flipping each page with
a crisp crinkle and a sour stench of new ink

First I sat in the plastic wheelie chair, hunched over
the old wooden folding table, with the rusty brown lamp
flickering above my head, casting a shadow over my work

Time continued I placed the computer in front of me
starting at the bright rectangle that illuminated my face
in the dark room in which I lie
I slugged back into the black wheelie chair
only to return to the green book

I stared at its pages,
names of colleges, which seemed so clear at first,
blended together like a bowl of soup
being mixed as my eyes gaze onto its complexity

As I read about more and more schools
they seemed to swirl into my demise
trying to pick only a couple

Finally, I rest, as the names and numbers
spin like a broken slot machine,
with me stuck on the other side of glass
to watch it spin endlessly
with no intention of stopping.