the po~et 18 (the black swan bookstore)

Jack stumbles across a used bookstore and gazes in the store fronts' window. The books in the window immediately peak her interest. She opens the squeaky door and the aroma of old pages immediately excites her. It is hard for her to know where to begin. She decides to start with the collection in the window. The owner of the quaint little store is amused to see someone enjoy his collected treasures. He gives her a quick tour, offers her a ladder and tells her to spend the rest of the afternoon indulging herself.

She searches through the shelves hunting for the authors words that speak to her as well as those that would satisfy his appetite. She wishes Paul was there to share her enthusiasm. The lust for words artfully orchestrated to account for events past, present, future, real--of fantasies, dreams and visions. Stories that haunted until they were told. Shelves filled with accounts of far away lands from the Mediterranean, the coasts of Africa, to the waters off the shores of exotic islands. Although he already posses an impressive library, she believes he would be just as enthralled with this place as she is.

She has been there for quite some time now and the aroma of time weathered books has aroused her. She imagines them there together passionately scavenging through this treasure chest, and after they would have satisfied their hunger for words they would search out a corner between the shelves. Their love for the power of language, it's meaning and usage gives them a common place. A place to meet undisturbed. The characters they create and those they discover through these volumes are who they have become. She finds a collection of an authors work that she knows he admires and decides to purchase it for him. She pictures how his face full of pleasure as he opens the gift. She has given up on trying to prevent herself from falling in love with him, it was hopeless, he now owned her heart.

Soon she looses all sense of time and place, intoxicated from this new found space, her mind succumbs to fantasy. She envisions them standing surrounded by stories old and new, his hand would move up her legs and find a way to uncover her hidden secrets. She would have him, make love to him down on the floor between the shelves, shielded by their volumes and under the watchful eye of Poe.