Promptly Poetry

Last Warrior to the Fray

Last Warrior to the Fray

A bookstore, you say?
Well, once the treasured dream
of half the women in England, Nell,
but now with a sell by date,
surely. Who buys books today,
now the computer reigns supreme?
Oh, I understand the romance,
the unspoken delights and secrets
stacked on shelves of silence,
the cracking open of a pristine spine,
the smell of a damn fine read,
been there myself with money for two
and fifteen that I longed to own.
I remember the hours spent searching
for nothing in particular,
just a passport to another world,
and I mourn with you the passing
of such things once thought immortal.
You’ll have my blessing in your endeavour
for I can wish you only well,
though I fear the future frowns upon
dinosaurs like you and me.
May your books and store survive e'en so,
the times of famine recede,
perhaps, like vinyl, to flourish again
when nostalgia drives the train.


Line count: 26
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry, Week 47
Prompt: Write a poem about a woman who works at a bookstore.