My Own Private Ulysses: Wandering Through Used Books

Wandering Through Used Books

Merchants’ Arch has a bookshop down below:

Lenehan links M’Coy by the elbow            

After he calls old Bloom, Leopoldo.              

Stephen Dedalus, too, is on the go

Past faded prints in Clohissey’s window.    

Then halts at a bookcart on Bedford Row,    

Recalls himself Stephano Dedalo,                 

Pawned school prizes: alumno optimo    

Tattered pages of memory’s echo.                 

“How to win a woman’s love,” reads Stephano.     

Say the following thrice, “Se el yilo            

Nebrakada femininum! Amor me solo!”              

Yo, Jimbo, so what is the dillio?           

Do used books bestow an ultimate O?              

Or do you simply prefer Italiano?           

Va bene, Giacomo. Buongiorno!