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Epilogue: Used Book
These marks in the margin,
dull, silver ensigns of your presence,
are like fading footprints
in a wilderness of sand or snow:
when I falter, they reassure me
that I do not journey these tracts alone.
Like a lover's smell on a garment
that lingers long after she's left,
your pencil-strokes forbid relief;
withdrawing often, they reappear astutely
to startle thought and remind.
Who are you that note so decorously,
that have left your slight initials
on every peak of understanding?
At each revelation I remark you--
pre-empting me, you linger here;
my fulfilment is not exclusive.
Wise philanderer, anonymous and secure,
I shall not erase your caress,
nor shall I uneasily dispossess
your overtures. But perusing
these pages again, adding
my dark touch to yours, I shall
forge another generation of signs
and turn our book loose, once more
for its next textual tryst.
