Amazing how a bookshelf reveals its owner -
vagabond, gadfly, poet, or loner.
This one of particle-board, a faded mustard hue
shelves unevenly protruding in full view.

It was free - an orphaned lout
of a neighbor moving out.
Now it's at the front window where
it sits right across from the easy chair.

It's the home of a seagull sculpted in bronze,
raggedy stuffed animals and bamboo fronds,
The Perfect Storm, and Joseph Heller,
Dyer, Viscott, and Garrison Keillor,
Diaries of Women, and memory makers,
Space, The Amish, and The Art of the Shakers,
stories of monks and Shakespeare's words,
paintings of Cole, Bierstadt, and birds.
The books seemed to have no system,
except... the volumes of her simple wisdom.

Dedicated to my sister and her new home in Portland.
 

06/06/2002

Posted on 06/06/2002
Copyright © 2026 Glenn Currier