Lane Changes

David Lawrence has had a colorful, if checkered life. Though he holds a Ph.D. in literature from CUNY Graduate Center and taught at Hunter College, in 1976 he went into business and within five years became the CEO of several large insurance brokerages on Wall Street. While there, he became a professional boxer and fought on television in venues like Vegas and Atlantic City. He made a movie of his fight career, Boxer Rebellion, which played at the Sundance Film Festival. In 1993 he didn’t pay his taxes on a few of his accounts, losing his multimillion-dollar businesses and ending up doing a two-year bid in a Federal Prison Camp. Prior to, during, and subsequent to jail he became a rapper and did three albums. His poems have been published inn many journals over the years, including Folio, Hawaii Review, New Delta Review, and South Carolina Review, and in four previous books: Boxer Rebellion, Steel Toe Boots, Dementia Pugilistica, and Blame It on the Scientists.