This Place of Wonder

by Barbara O'Neal

Bookstores can solve any problem, at least for a little while.

And books are always a source of comfort. Bookstore, library, even a bookmobile, I’m happy.

I once read that the smell of coffee has healing properties.

Not everything can be forgiven. Not everything can be healed.

spinning in a whirling dervish of fury and betrayal,

the fury rose from some unknown source like the noxious bubbles in the cauldron of a Shakespearean witch.

There’s nothing so lonely as that lostness,

I can’t bring myself to eat something that’s smart enough to free itself from an aquarium,