Getting Rid of Books

We make two stacks on the floor.
The hard covers that will go to the book dealer in Harriman.
The soft covers that will go to the Moffat Library for their book sale.
I tell myself that I will not regret this someday.

I tell myself that I’m not a Nazi, that I’m not burning them.
I tell myself that there is nothing to feel guilty about,
except, perhaps not having read them all.
Nevertheless, I do feel guilt whenever I part with a book,

even a bad one, even one that should never have been
published in the first place.
How exactly did I came by this cowardice,
this vague and childhood guilt,

so much like the guilt my parents laid on me when
I left food on my plate as the children in Europe starved?

 J.R. Solonche has been publishing poems in magazines, journals, and anthologies since the 1970s. He teaches at Orange County Community College in Middletown, NY.