Lost in the Pages - April 22 2023

 

Lost in the Pages

April 22 2023

The bookmark

slipped out of the 2nd-hand novel

where it had lain for years,

nestled between the pages

undisturbed.

It felt like a secret missive

from the anonymous reader

who came before,

letting me know

where the book had lost his interest,

or where he intended

to pick it up again.

And not just how far he got,

but what he bought

at the Stop and Save

some random day long ago.

2 lbs of Polish sausage,

a quart of milk,

a carton of cigarettes.

And a bouquet

of supermarket flowers

for someone he loved.

I like to think

it was an impulse buy,

a heart that overflowed.

Which he gifted her

with tar-stained fingers

and a smoker's cough,

his breath a little garlicky.

I calculate the years

since the receipt was issued

and imagine what became of them.

If not a novel

then a short story

where the ending has yet to be written.

Did they stay together;

happily-ever-after,

at least for a chapter or two?

Did he buy the bouquet

for someone else

he couldn't help but fall for?

Or were the flowers for himself?

A splash of colour

in the dark apartment

where he now lived alone.

Lost in the pages

of epic novels

by gloomy Russian authors.

With scoundrels and grifters

swindlers and thugs

where justice always prevails.

In compulsive whodunits

where betrayal and lust

in some cozy cottage

seem incongruously out of place.

And in the made-up lives

of lovers and rivals,

unforgiving civil wars.