Sunday, June 14, 2009

AUTHOR'S PLIGHT

On East Tenth Street in a bookstore
Frederic Tuten’s “The Green Hour”
Is the last book on the far right
Of the second shelf from the floor.

Above it a label reads, Signed Copies.

Through the door, as though on cue,
A whitehaired man in overcoat
Bursts
into the store,
A marinade of indecision.

Slicing through the browsers

His long arm hooks
The last book on the far right
Of the second shelf from the floor

I pluck another copy and compare
The image of the author on the sleeve
With the face of the man at the counter
Paying for his book in the store




December 28 2003
New York