Summary

Chapter Three opens with the speaker acknowledging that “this letter isn’t / for any specific / kind of dream” (68). It is simply “intended / FOR THE / COURAGEOUS” (68). The speaker postulates that perhaps the reader is a dancer, painter, actor, photographer, or maybe even a writer--even if only a writer of “letters to people / you don’t know but / do know you love” (71).

But, the speaker adds, maybe his listener is not an artist at all, since “DREAMS AREN’T RESERVED FOR THE CREATIVES” (72). Maybe his listeners are athletes hoping to win an important game. Maybe they’re 18 years old and hoping to make their “first million / by twenty-five / (it’s not impossible)” (73), or maybe they’re “eighteen / and plan to make it to twenty-one / (it’s not impossible…)” (73).

The speaker describes moving in with his mother when he turned 25 and discovering that she was finally achieving...