Shelved

         tucked and forgotten
         third shelf from the bottom
         coated with motes 

         of remorse and dead skin
         wedged between
         Dali and Dante's Inferno

         hand-tooled white leather
         gold embossed face plate; 
         pictures of silence to come

         hermetically sealed
         in transparent pages
         protecting the luster

         of veiled memories
         a talisman linked
         to the oxidized rings

         of intention –
         a moldering book 
         that no one remembers 

         to cherish.