Worn Collars - Part Eleven - "Ref: None Located"

Worn Collars

Part Eleven

"Ref:  None Located"

            I do not pick up and ‘look at’ (“inspect”) a ‘rare’ (old) book in your

            Smelly box of old books

            Should there be a ...smelly... rare... book in your box of

            Old smelly books that is

            Possibly

            An old book that is rare.  No.

            MY EYES are so sharp... TOO sharp... on this

            Divination

            To chance a ‘bother with’ a ‘notice you

            Noticing me

            Seeing ‘that’ let alone ‘touch that’...

            Let alone

            “Looking at that”

            “That one?” you say.

            No... I wait until you

            Go away.

            And I do not do anything then... either.

            No, no, no.  Religion... education... social development...

            Answers.  Questions.  Thoughts.

            Plight, sight... physical mite

            Monetary delight...

            And copious amounts of

            Dubious self infatuated oversight...

            From the poolside brandy flower garden

            Trowel of your own very Self & Self  LLC...

            Assure me

            That you will not

            Ever see

            You own rare book

            In your old box of old books that smell and

            Are from your mother’s house...

            Should she have happened to have one

            (A rare book)

            Self and Self, the limited liability corporation of “I” “Think”

            That you say surely self protects you with...

            All of your damn education was wasted wasn’t it...

            When your outside the door of the

            Rare book room.

            Well you’d better own up to that dark brown choke-in-throat

            Medicine and throw

            Out whole decades of self education of ‘I’ ‘think’.

            Just go to your back door (anyone of many) and look out over

            The neighborhood...

            And throw it out.

            Then you may begin to decide

            How you feel

            About choosing a room

            In the complex aberration you call

            Your life

            To become your very own

            Rare book room

            (“I want one”).

            You may want to dress up and

            Celebrate the occasion

            Of your first day of

            Bibliomania

            After telling your hanger around set to

            “Shut up and go away”.

            You will know when this happens to you.  Conscious selection and watching thy self close that door for the first time.  Second time.  “I put a book shelf in.  I didn’t know.  It was in the back of the garage for years.  I only put a few of my old books on it.  I promise.  But they seem like they could be good ones to me.  Good old books I mean.  I know now they are not rare old books for they cannot be I think I said but now the first page turn is to turn my self to my own ‘I feel’... of my old books.  I like them; old books

            I always have.”

            If it is ‘a lot of Irving’ in Arlington St. John’s locked cabinets (Part Three ) and Irving is a ‘nobody reads’ in the hanger around set and even Arlington didn’t buy them; it:  These old books.  Ok just minute... no going too fast as in skipping what I just said.  I said “buy them; it”.  That means that.  And that means... have you... ever ‘bought’ an ‘old’ and / or ‘rare’ book.  “I remember” you say?  WHEN.  WHY.  Did you read it?  Do you ‘still have that’ (the old book you BOUGHT).  OK:  I SAY a little self review is in order; a ‘get your old books in order’... in order.  WHY?  Because I tell you over and over Arlington St. John is rotten book collector but he has a rare book room with cabinets full of “a lot of Irving” and he... has (had) actually read pretty much all of them even over and over and could sit there sipping over iced smidgens and eating Saltines and cheese with me and we were perfectly delighted to do this and would even have welcomed you “IN” especially if YOU could tell us a tale of “your first old book” “I remember” and smidgen sip TOO by simply answering the questions above.  YEAH YOU; a bibliomania maniac?

            If the Jesse James train robbery rare Kansas broadside (a ‘rare book’ pictured and listed #167 in Dary; KANZANA [Part Ten]) has “ref : none located” (no references located), one copy known, one copy inspected and... that’s not gonna be in the smelly box of old books from your mother’s house.  To find one of those I’m gonna have to be a lot ‘better’ than that.  A lot better.  And you don’t even know you can ‘find that’; a ‘this’ ‘rare book’.  Let alone “HOW”.  And I’m in Arlington’s rare book room talking with him about “Irving” and... we just let you in and... your telling us your stupid story of your first ‘rare book’ “I bought” and we LIKE IT and

            Like you too.

            “My wife thinks I’m crazy.” You say?

            “So buy some pretty books and leave then around (on top of your “I” ‘that old desk’ “I CLEANED IT OUT” and ‘up’ and “BUT IT WASN’T BEING USED ANYMORE we all have lap tops” “DEAR”.

            “It doesn’t smell.”

            “What the HELL are ‘pretty books’”

            You know what they are.  EVERYBODY likes ‘pretty’ ‘old’ ‘books’.

            “It’s a shotgun shell... with a pamphlet rolled up inside of it.  They’re very rare.  The shell has to be there.  It’s like its slipcase.  (“What’s a ‘slipcase’?)  That’s the way they came.  They handed them out to everyone.  It was a give-away at the show; a promotional give-away. (A ‘give-way is different from a ‘handed them out to everyone’ promotional ‘throw-away’).  Cool huh?”

            “I saw one once.  Roger (Garnett)’s collection still has one I bet.  Seems to me he did.  Pretty sure.  I remember the shell.  Just the same; with the pamphlet inside.  Can’t remember what it (the pamphlet and the printed ...content... of the pamphlet) was about.  Just the same; real fragile.  Hey maybe that’s the same one (same copy).  Where’d you get that?  His wife is selling his books I heard”.

            “There’s a guy up Rangeley (Maine) way who had one.  He only liked the camp stuff.  But he got ah hold of one.  Wanted too much for it.  I said ‘come on’.  I haven’t seen him in a while.  I don’t even know if he’s still up there.  He used to buy everything (old ‘rare’ books) from (about) up there.  But I don’t know what happened to him.  I think he got divorced.  Or something”.

            “You know who knows about that.  Crimson.  He had that back shed of his FILLED with that kind of stuff.  Just RARE all of it.  Wouldn’t sell you a damn thing unless he had six copies of it.  KEPT IT ALL.  Well... I’d sit in there with him.  Drunk as a skunk.  NO; not really.  All afternoon we’d SWAP he called it.  Then we’d go down to MEXICO (Maine).  That chicken place.  Then I’d have to drive him back.  Then go home.  Jesus.  But he FOUND that stuff.  He was into every old camp that was up that way.  You ever go up there to his place?”

            “Ref: none located”.