Sylvan's Foremost Bookstore Poem by Charles Rossiter

is Sylvan,
is the bookstore
at the crossroads of Sylvan
and empty fields
in Southwest Ontario.

"It's a town that never happened"
Bob says shuffling boxes
to make space for us
to walk through.

Forty-thousand books
in an old general store

"I pay rent on the house and
the store comes with it,
otherwise it would just sit vacant."

Open weekends and by chance
or appointment, a note on the door says
knock at the house if closed,
I'm usually home
and he is every time
we take this back road to Sarnia.

Bob's picture is on the bookmark
leaning over a stack of books
wide-eyed,
hair to his shoulders,
gray beard
half-way down his chest.

The caption reads:
'Would you buy a used book
from this man? '
Hell Yes we say
and Hell Yes again.

There are bookstores
and then there are bookstores.