The joy of reading

I splurge my parent’s hard-earned money

not on cigarettes, booze and sex or gadgets

but on books

the classics, contemporary fiction of every genre

non-fiction, regional

self-help

business and management

computer engineering

spiritual, philosophy

historical.

I walk into a shop

sometimes Crossword

starmark or my local vendor

sometimes on streets where

second-hand books are sold at dirt-cheap prices

but in mint condition

you might get a hardcover Harry Potter

for a couple hundred bucks

or enjoy Joyce’s Ulysses

at the same price as your non-fat, de-caf cappucino.

The best part is

when I come home

get an old cloth laced with a splash of water

wipe the books to perfection

cover them with old newspapers

cut the corners

and keep them on the shelf.

The worst part is

at the end of the day when

I listen to my father cough up blood

piss into a catheter shit into an adult diaper

due to lung cancer

hear my mom pleading to God in her sleep

for an early release

from her arthritis and liver cirrhosis.

I have about 160 books perching on that shelf

comics, manga, poetry collection, short story anthologies

stuff I haven’t touched in a long time

because I’m busy buying things I don’t need

with money I don’t have

to numb my pain

with the joy of reading.