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Cigar-Scented Book by Edward Nudelman

The cigar-scented book sits in its paper wrapping
on my work desk where it spent the night.
It arrived in the mail a couple days ago,
but these books generally need a day or two
at room temperature to cure.
My old friend liked cigars-
good ones, and not from Honduras,
(or so he used to say,
but I once changed the labels
and he couldn't tell the difference).   
So when I opened it,
I wasn't surprised
to find the buckram-bound book
wreaking of cigars;
My friend passed away several years ago
due to injuries sustained from falling down
a long flight of stairs.
In his last days, he would often remind me
how grateful he was to have had all those
many hours of cigar smoking,
and it never killed him.
I still buy his books
because they're good quality old books.
No, I buy them because I like to have him here,
every couple of weeks or so,
in a package, on my desk, overnight.
He was a fine Antiquarian tradesman
who could hone in on the one fine volume of Byron
in a shop full of dross.
He was a fine man who would call me up
to describe a great rarity and we'd both
know he was just calling to talk.
"It has a marvelous hand-colored frontispiece,
reminds me of the print you gave Carol and I..."
I still buy his books,
old and distinctive, acrid-smelling,
like the man.
Not long before he died, my friend sold the store
to a youngster who doesn't really like old books,
sells them like candy by the box load,
with no discounts and no bartering allowed.
But I still buy them one at a time.
Today, when I opened the parcel,
Poems, by Francis Thompson, greeted me.
I found a nice inscription from the author
just below the half-title, that read,
"To Norman, as good as an old book, an old friend,
Affectionately yours, Francis Thompson, 1895."
which apparently the youngster,
based on the very affordable price,
must have missed.
I wonder if Francis Thompson smoked cigars. 

Bio: Edward Nudelman is a graduate of the University of Washington and is working in the Boston area as a scientist in the field of cancer research.   Some of his poems have been recently published in The Orange Room Review, The White Leaf Review, Alone Together, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Because We Write, Shine, Thick with Conviction, and Dispatch Lit Review.   He has received awards for his prose and has written two acclaimed books on a 20th Century American artist.   He is a correspondent on poetry for Gather, an NPR-funded writing vehicle.