I underlined a passage
in the book I read this morning,
words worthy of emphasis,
honored above their fellows.
Then I asked myself
when will they
be read again?
And by whom?
Would I return some day,
thumbing through pages
to seek them out?
Or would I prefer unread books
to read and underline?
Perhaps someone else
will be the first to see these underlines again.
My children?
Curious, after my passage,
to see what their father found important years ago?
Or will it be a stranger
at a secondhand bookstore,
annoyed to find another’s gloss
on what should be a pristine page?
I may never return
to these underline words.
But I might.
Granolativity 