Used Book Sale
(sponsored by "Friends of the Library,"
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.)
Sarton, Blackmur,
Deutsch, Wilbur, Drew,
A Controversy of Poets,
Ariel, too,
Unlucky seventh at the top,
My modest cache of books
Culled from a skimpy crop.
To pay, I stop
Where the library's "Friends"
Stand about.
A young girl
Counts them out.
"She was my classmate,"
Says a "Friend"
Seeing Ariel
Above the pack.
"So much, of late,
About her."
It takes her back
To days at Smith
(With her, without her).
"You wouldn't know
What was in her, though,
Quite ordinary….
She tried to be…"
She hesitates.
"Like you and me?"
"Yes, but later
She was suicidal."
(But she was not idle.)
Pure white her hair,
Quite elegant and fair,
This "Friend" who stops to share
Her being there.
Her friend
Who steps across the floor
Makes quickly clear
She's heard these words before.
The girl hands my change to me,
Modeling impassivity,
"Enjoy," I think she said
(Although Ms. Plath is dead).
I bag my books,
The "Friends" have turned away,
I've bought the only copy
On display.
What more to say?
n.d. (ca.'95), 5/28/98, 9/29/07
Copyright 1998, 2007 by Maurice Leiter
Posted with permission.
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