Lamenting the Lack
Alas, poor bookshops!
I knew them, reader,
their fellowship and infinite zest,
most excellent editions
bearing me ten thousand times.
How hung those heavy shelves I miss.
Where ride your volumes now?
Deluxe diversions?
Genres? Nameplates?
Now, nothing to be found
in this twittering mall.
Lamenting the Lack © Copyright 2021, Robert J. Tiess.
View this poem at AllPoetry.com
45 words (prompt limit). Death of Bookstores challenge prompt - link:
https://allpoetry.com/contest/2739046-Death-of-the-bookstore
Poem inspired by Hamlet's Yorick speech, Act 5, Scene 1:
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet_5_1.html
Last line inspired by T. S. Eliot's "twittering world" from Four Quartets, Burnt Norton, part three.
Submitted: December 23, 2019