Ron Scully
Booksmith Closings
for Brian McCormick October 22, 2024
To the bookseller of the times where have you gone?
There were new titles this week, sitting in brown boxes.
Which novels do we need, which histories repeat?
Which confessions tell all, which cookbooks or fad diets?
Either hardcover or paperbacks, they're the greatest of gifts.
To the bookseller of the times where have you gone?
You could always tell which romance was right for the beach
which mystery for the train, which self help to hit the sheets.
How you could read people like they were bestsellers
or lasting classics, and how you could upsell them themselves.
To the bookseller of the times where have you gone?
And what was on your nightstand the time of your passing.
There were more books to read, and not enough time.
All of them you once said were one. But tell me this,
did you bookmark the pain you could not turn the page on?
To the bookseller of the times where have you gone?
Bio
Ron Scully is a very retired bookseller. After half a lifetime on the road, an authentic Willy Loman only funnier, he has settled in the Pacific Northwest to read and write. He practices haikai daily and has published widely in short form journals. To date he has published 7 chapbooks, the latest of which is The Roundhouse Clock published by Yavanika Press. Occasionally he publishes a lyric piece, but only when given. Currently he is working on a play. Otherwise, he has grandkids to keep the neurons firing.