A Purchase

unpacking boxes and falling
into the past, a time line
made of books bought
in an old second hand
store from a woman
who grew up in China,
the daughter of missionaries,
a book purchased in a
house converted into a
bookstore where each room
held a different genre
until a browser left a medieval
history book leaning against
The Complete Stories
Of Flannery O'Connor
which now occupies the
first shelf of my bookcase