Test 1, 2, 3.

Traded in my wisdom
For a [not so] perfect smile.
Kept my calloused feet
So I could walk [another] mile.
Swapped out all my social graces
For a [well-used] well-written book.
All of the characters were me
Except the one who knew [what] to look [for].



(The pain isn't too bad yet, but the numbness of my lower lip and tongue are seriously annoying.)

So, I'm coming up with prompts to leave at spn_bitesized's current theme of Death, and I'm about to put "Death dances" as a prompt when this happens:

Death dances, Death sings,
"Mortals kill all the things
that they hold dear
as they clutch them in fear
of the unknown that awaits
at the gates
of their inevitable fates.
For all mortals must die
and that's when I,
Oh I,
an eternal sleep I bring them
with the lullaby I sing them."
Death Sings, Death Dances
for all of the chances,
for the hours and minutes and days
that might have been spent in other ways.
Death dances to the beat
of endless defeat
for no one can escape,
not the highest power now the lowliest ape.
Every microbe and cell
one day ceases to dwell
on this Earth that we know
we are part of Death's show.
Death dances with us.

---

And then I didn't entirely like that, so I grabbed the last line and started over:

Death dances with us
Though we do not know the steps
[Death Knows]
So we balance our toes on his shoes
As he shuffles about
We cling to his waist
As he turns and bows
To each of us
We know the Dance is done
But there are always others
Death dances with them.

---

More modifications:

Death dances with us
Though we don't know the steps
[Death Knows]
So we balance our toes on the tops of his shoes
As he shuffles about
We cling to his waist
Till he pries off our embrace
And we are forced to return to solid ground
[Lost and now Found]
The Dance is over.

---

And I'm still not happy with it, so I think I'll leave the prompt after all and see what someone else comes up with (if anyone responds, anyway).

So of course I forgot all about buying text books or else I might have tried ordering them earlier, so I could get them used.
Fortunately, only one of my classes even has books. Unfortunately, it has six. Five of which I managed to purchase at used book stores around town.

First stop: Murphy-Brookfield Books where I got Journeys in New Worlds: Early American Women's Narratives for $6.50 (as opposed to $17.95) and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography for $15 (which isn't that much less than the $17.92, but my copy is a hardback from 1951* (and came with a book sleeve/case thingy) with like, marble paper on the covers and illustrations inside, so there).

*Which could get me in trouble since he said he wanted a specific edition, but the prof is my adviser, and based on what I know of him, I think I could be all Flaily Hands Book Nerd (which is honestly what happened) about it and he'd be okay.

Second stop: The Haunted Bookshop which is officially has the best book shopping experience because there is at least one cat in the store and zhe was adorable and let me pet zir. There I got Charlotte Temple for $3.95 (take that $17.54), Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man for 50 cents (only $2.50 new, but I saved a whole $2), and I got The Complete Poems and Stories of Edgar Allan Poe (as opposed to Selected Tales) for $20 (which in this instance is a splurge, but I get more stories for my buck and it's a two volume hardback set, and really, I could get a brand new so-called "perfect" (adhesive) binding and it would fall apart sooner than my 1982 hardbacks and they are prettier besides, and I mean really, it's Poe creeptasticness, what's not to love?)

So of course neither of them had the most expensive book that's also the one I need to have to do reading from in advance of Thursday's class and of course they only have one copy in the library and it's checked out and on hold, so it's too late to order it online and I'll have to pay full (almost $50!) price for Perspectives on American Book History. I hate paying full price.

Which is,
Of course,
To start all over again.

Inevitably failing that,
To plot what is left:
In rising tension,
In falling grace.

Of course,
There are no readers.