My true loves—
travel and books—
warred with each other
in days gone by.
Travel often won
simply because I could afford her demands.
It was cheaper to keep her
than pay for Books’ shipping costs,
a continual drain on strained finances.
I still grieve the loss of books
reluctantly left on foreign shores
as well as those I had to leave in
one U.S. city or another,
unable to afford the luxury of their company.
My traveling days
it seems
are over.
The shoestring traveler
now wears slippers.
But an unexpected pleasure has taken place:
I’m to have a library in my home,
a place where Kat’s books
and my books
can live happily together.
And,
from far-flung places,
my books are coming home to me.
A few here, a few there,
boxes of them are wending their way to me.
This weary traveler will be happy to see
their worn bindings and cracked spines, for I know
my books will take me wherever I wish to go.

April 19, 2012
Salt Lake City