Window Shopping

Uptown Whittier before the quake hit in '87 was a throw-back to the days before mega-malls. I miss it! He & his daughter moved the store to Grass Valley. He passed away a few years ago.

 

Window Shopping

 

Old Harry walks his Scottish terrier on Sundays

The streets are reverently hushed in the Quaker town

Storefronts shuttered in quiet meditation

 

Except for Harry's bookstore

Paperbacks whisper strange secrets

Old leather volumes tempt the voyager to new horizons

with clay paper color illustrations

 

All reflected in the young man's

spectacles

of desire and betrayal reveal themselves

page by page

 

His nicotine-stained fingers crack

Philip José Farmer slides into his eager hands,

searching for bliss in the well-thumbed sections

 

He slides the paperback into his sweater

and trips the light beam bell as he slips away

He steals through the deserted streets

climbs the stairs to his lonely apartment

and sets another fantasy on the shelf

Reviews

[PhoeniX]

what a small tale of a man loving pieces of literature. it was sweet