Listen:  https://youtu.be/pHvB7Wde1g8

Life, actually…

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TO BE YOUNG  AND SMALL AND SWEET

AND DANCING ON AIR ONCE MORE

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The petite bookstore visitor pauses and stares and vibrates before a tall stack of previous-century volumes that await shelving.

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She delicately touches textured spines, at the same time swaying slightly to the gentle jazz emanating from an old record player behind the books.

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She does not notice whether she’s keeping time with the books or the music. They both seem the same to her.

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She dances in-place, unnoticed by surrounding elsewhere-entranced browsers. She is noticed only by the shop owner who glances up from his work now and then to see whether she is remaining in the moment.

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A glimpse later and she’s gone, absorbed by the aisles of paginated lives once lived, lives now ambered within time capsules.

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Another customer leans against tall shelving, intensely examining each and every page of a title she is considering. Yet another peruser lies afloor on his side, closely thumbing through bottom rows of old brittle 78rpm recordings, recordings he must and will own before exiting onto sunny streets.

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Visitors arrive and wonder and leave, some alone, others in clusters, still others in a daze. Some know they’ve experienced a living distant past. Some are clueless but marveling at what they have experienced. Some are along for the ride, not sure what they just missed.

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The shop owner plies his trade with a silent smile, grateful for this small life among dreamers and their books. He wishes each purchase a long and respected existence, he wishes each purchaser a long and respected existence.

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And later, when he closes up for the day, he will retire to his ancient home to write down his memories, dreams, reflections…and will dare to share some of them with you

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© Jim Reed 2024 A.D.

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