One Careless Owner

sometimes i like to traipse about
second hand book stores

and sunny market stalls

hopes of picking out
some old forgotten gem

all dog-eared and darkened
still yet to peruse

or to replace favourite reads
passed out
to new excited friends
over late nights of wine, music
and smoky discourse

carefully selected
but rarely returned……

and at times
embossed upon the inside page
i discover
hand written messages of new loves

hopes and dreams……..

and i wonder….
how they wound up here?

love’s time all done
and dusted down

and could there be
in some old cobbled side street store

Nabokov, Camus; Hamson

naive inscriptions
i may have even penned myself?
and wonder how and why
they wound here 
one careless owner
up on the shelf?