Oxfam Shop Poem by Terry Donovan

The Oxfam Shop book section
Had the usual array,
Ancient road maps, Jeffrey Archer,
Three copies of the Guinness Book of Records
The Idiot's Guide to Windows 95
And lots of copies of those little green books
Which the Jehova's Witnesses give away.
Cook-books in abundance,
Mills & Boom galore
Shelves of forgettable fiction,
One-time best-sellers and a few old Penguins
Like Lady Chatterly's Love and Nineteen-Eighty-Four.
Two Spanish-English Dictionaries,
A Ford Anglia owner's manual,
A blood-stained DIY book
And - of course - The Rose Growers' Annual.
But, as ever, tucked away, unobtrusive and thin,
Overlooked by everyone like a plain biscuit in an assorted-biscuit tin,
I came across at last
A little book of poetry, a school book from the past.

And I bought it.