I'd been famous, but didn't know it or else I just forgot

Walter gave me The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry
for my birthday a year or two ago
I can't remember anymore.

I remember when it was first published
some of my friends were in it
I wasn't
I was disappointed
but who am I?

I was happy to have the book
my friends are famous
I told myself
I'm not
so it goes
who cares, anyway.

I've read from it
from time to time
A.D. Wynans
d.a. levy
Jim Chandler
Kerouac
Ferlinghetti
Ginsberg.

When I was a kid
I wanted to be a beat
On the Road ruined my life.

Today, I was looking through The Bible
while I was getting my brakes fixed.

Chandler is a pal of mine
published me
with lots of other pals
from the poetry underground
of the late eighties
and early nineties.

I looked at his bio
Thunder Sandwich published
"some of the best poets
of the last two deacades,"
it read, "including
Gerald Locklin
Lyn Lifshin
Virgil Harvey
and Cheryl Townsend.

I called Walter
from the Brake Pros waiting room
my name is in the book
I said
all this time
and I never knew
or did we have this conversation
before?

I wish they'd spelled my name right.