Rare

 

Silk, leather, redrafted psalmists’ epistles, calved fully somehow.

Conference time again in the college of a capital,

Rare books cataloguing, the session warming with

Dates Latin counting backwards to Christ [square brackets].

Count the signatures stitched into spine lines:

A time when these words would clear a room,

Or set in uproar, have them hanging by a thread.

If no author authority, then do with what’s there.

An impression is not an edition, is never finished.

A print run may’ve diminished to an example of one.

The item in hand has long not soaked the sun.

Attend to publisher At The Sign Of The Head

Backwards from the churchdoor quick and dead.

Check for existence in the best register, titled ‘Early and Often’.