Someone’s left a hundred-year-old copy
of Dumas’s Musketeers on top of the
organic garbage bin.
Damp like a stained pillowcase,
edges frayed but intact.
Illuminated sticker affixed inside the front cover
that has held for more than a century,
blaze of art-deco peacock feathers
frames an inscription in cursive:
Awarded to George Bell
for Unbroken attendance
1920
George will never read this book again.
I leave it on my windowsill to dry in the early autumn sun.
2023.09.05 – 2023.12.03
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