Tsundoku (the condition of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them)

They are laid out for this Sunday
stations between lockdown dates
and if an ear is pressed to them

words singing out of lethargy
rise out of loose leaf castings

from waiting rooms across the city
a fall of sound as another bearer
signals to lounges kitchens hallways

that awakening hope of release
in the chugging unopened language

where skimmed pages delayed
hanging on by the faded light
of patience stretched amongst the piles

convey the railway alphabet
a slower mystery of words

stops to start again ticket less
written as we are by each other
for carriage into other lives