To Marie Antoinette, from a Woman Who Loved to Read

Kelly R. Samuels

 

Oh, sure, the books on the shelves
                                                            for show.

And sometimes one in the hand. A romance
not unlike those Harlequins I made quick work
of before the age of 14.

But never sequestered. Never lifting the eye
from the page, having to orient yourself. Bring yourself
back to.

I was looking to go
somewhere, get to know
someone in a safe way. Not you –

with all your uncut pages.

My spines were bent. Margins marked.
A tea stain on the cover of the one, from when I lent it
and then longed for its return and then grieved.

For the girl. And the girl.

 

Kelly R. Samuels is a Best of the Net and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, as well as the author of two chapbooks: Words Some of Us Rarely Use (Unsolicited) and Zeena/Zenobia Speaks (Finishing Line). Her poems have recently appeared in RHINO, Cold Mountain Review, DMQ Review, The Pinch, and Quiddity. She lives in the Upper Midwest.

 

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