browsing through emails,
and searching for an address,
just by accident
I come across an old friend's
poignant obituary
I was browsing in a book shop today
And a book on the bargain table took my eye straight away
It had lost thirty dollars off the price overnight
You see it had become out of date what a delight
The title made me laugh out aloud
About Australian prime ministers looking back so proud
You see I would think to stay out ahead
This book would have to be published monthly instead!
© Paul Warren Poetry
In a store that sells antiques,
The past is much alive,
Including parts that we’d prefer
Did somehow not survive.
Some creepy dolls and ugly clothes
And jewelry I’d not wear
Forlornly grace the shelves without
Their one-time savoir faire.
But other items bring a smile
Or memory to bear –
A Popeye pin, some Beatles cards
And much Fiestaware.
Three typewriters with all their keys
Sit Royally encased
And lots of kitchen tools I wish
I never had replaced.
I troll the aisles quite aimlessly
For if you want the truth,
The only things I hope to find
Are traces of my youth.
There’s no way I’ll buy another book...
I’ve enough to fill every nook…
But this one looks exciting…
The plot seems riveting…
It has free shipping…
Just stop buying…
Just one more…
No more…
Click!
Women can watch the surf roll in
For hours at a time it seems
Their gaze is locked so far afield
Are they looking inside their dreams?
Or do they feel ancestral tugs
Pulling them into the sea
Like seamen hear the Lorelei
Choir of Catastrophe?
Could it be a lunar cycle
Linked to astrology
Which helps them feel as one with earth
And no need at all for me?
On that laden shelf, perhaps a scratch or two
Yet strong and boasting of times gone by
A piece of yesterday that we can touch
A past gone,but with the present a visible tie
I find a certain longing as I putter about
To know the stories, secrets that they hold
Of men and women whose lives they touched
If these pieces had a voice, what stories told
Remembering the past a musing for a rainy day
As I touch and examine through the afternoon
Perhaps to take an old treasure home with me
And from time to time with the past commune