The Placeholder

Coffee ringed slips peeking out of spindly stacks. Stacks that sit precariously on stools, up turned logs and flat surfaces made tall. Some slips are deep into the words, while others barely skim the creamy pages. Sometimes these coffee ringed slips are replaced with hastily torn jagged shreds of old lovers whose overused bone and flesh foreshadows the future.

Pauses, two worn pages forward, two water stained pages back record the days. Flesh marked interludes gouge pencil indentations within parchment skin. Gentle feathers of breath register passages of laughter and sordid adventures. Time between readings is never consistent but rather insistent. A rifling of smooth tongued pages then covers banged shut.

A longing for a study of pages that would last for days or months. A slow caress of opaque pages turning buttery soft from each negotiation. Embraces diminished to a finger flick along the spine. The coffee ringed slip now a faded remembrance on a bone weary page as the placeholder fades away.

cjtaylor 2023