The Haunted Bookshop Poem by Sheena Blackhall

When I read a book about food
A ragged claw of a crab crosses my tongue

When I read a book about cancer,
I see again the ruined breast of a friend
A seeping cave, being ravaged

When I read a book about death
I smell lilies, chrysanthemums
Taste again the bitterness of grief

When I read a book about fathers
I feel the scaffolding of a hug

When I read a book,
I enter the world of ghosts
The author leads me into a room
With black velvet drapes,
Where night tides shake like jellies
Where sun warms up a Highland heather moor
Where characters dissolve with tears of laughter
Where knives dissect a pulsing living heart

The exit comes when I close the volume shut