May 2 is Independent Bookstore Day.
Used
by Jared Carter
Abandoned, on rough wooden shelves –
dusty, crowded –
Volumes bereft, beside themselves,
almost shrouded.
Here the gaunt castaways on view,
their faces blurred,
Their jackets torn, their binding glue
half cracked, their words
A mumble now. The old Playboys
are finger-worn;
The back room, with its special toys,
still offers porn.
by Jared Carter
Abandoned, on rough wooden shelves –
dusty, crowded –
Volumes bereft, beside themselves,
almost shrouded.
Here the gaunt castaways on view,
their faces blurred,
Their jackets torn, their binding glue
half cracked, their words
A mumble now. The old Playboys
are finger-worn;
The back room, with its special toys,
still offers porn.
Bio: Jared Carter’s most recent book of poems is Darkened Rooms of Summer: New and Selected Poems (University of Nebraska Press). He lives in Indiana.