Books 📚📖

Opportunity Shops

I found them in a corner, hidden by some jumbled clothes
how they got, there was a mystery on its own.
Never one to miss a bargain, I stuffed them in my bag
before the opportunity had flown.

There were old LPs and cassettes, bargains on the back wall shelves
but none would be more valuable than this.
I had often wandered through here when I had time on my hands
a half an hour of peace and utter bliss.

I sometimes watched the shoppers as they tried on hats and clothes
some took ages to pick and choose.
I often wondered at their background, of their situation now in life
and what it would be like to wear another’s shoes.

So much trash or treasure lined the old and battered shelves
bits and pieces now discarded from some life.
A teddy bear, a battered doll and some old, worn paperbacks
a golf club or a fishing reel and knife.

Oh, I forgot about my treasure as I rambled on and on
I get that way when I go down there to shop
It was a box of old Bronze Swagman books from many years ago
when I saw them well, I thought my eyes would pop.

So now I sit here reading every verse from a long time ago
some editions went back to nineteen eighty-two.
Not a treasure by some people’s gauge, but they were by mine
whoever dumped them did not have a clue.