Kimmy’s Garden

People are always forgetting their stuff in
books returning to the library -
forgetting the things they use to remind them.

Funny ha ha.

Date due receipts obviously
the most popular of bookmarks,
name of client indiscretely at the top.

Actual bookmarks come in at a close second:
knitted, glued, laminated,
with profound quotes, or cute pictures, or pretty ribbons and threads;
some even with magnets to hold the page tight -
relatively useless, except for ripping out pages
when you try to remove them.

Speaking of page-rippers:
sticky notes - big, little,
cut-up to be really little:
pink, blue, orange, yellow, red
white, beige, salmon, fluorescents,
green, black, gray, brown, multi-coloured;
heart-shaped, flower-shaped, foot-shaped,
shamrock-shaped, balloon-shaped, cat-head-shaped,
personalized, from-the-desk-of-Jesse, note-from-Erin,
skinny transparent reminder tabs with arrows,
without arrows, “sign-here” arrows,
books so full of reminders that they are, frankly, useless.

Bookmarks that aren’t so nice are varied:
price tags, gum wrappers, bus transfers,
telephone bills, parking receipts, movie stubs,
five dollar bills;
concert tickets;
bits of ripped paper
showing only clues of parts of words or numbers;
grocery lists, to-do lists, party-invitee lists;
post cards, address change cards,
telephone numbers, photographs;
official documents such as T4s,
immigration papers,
student loan forms,
job application forms and CVs,
corrected tests, course syllabi,
and really personal items like
love letters, and
suicide notes.

Funny strange.

The only thing borrowers actually come back for are the
concert tickets.