A Short Visit to the Emporium

and then i climbed up a flight of stairs
pulling on the bannister for assurance
until i reached the level where shelves
of fiction lured me into mystery and
domestic triangles and lonesome pining
where if i went to the left into non-fiction
i roamed through poetry, soap making,
coin collecting and theology for dummies
until i settled for a book about
the romance of adam and eve, a mystery
billed as a nail biter and a memoir of
spiritual disobedience by a woman
who believed that the road to faith
means tasting the how to book on sins
and all the sinners raised their hands
and shouted hallelujah