The Library’s Fleeting Dreams of What It Means to Be Human

A Poem

Photo by Henry Be on Unsplash

it is dark
in your own special room
with all your shelves bursting
with so much promise, so much hope,
if only someone would take the time
to notice you

and then
that’s where he comes in

his fingertips flutter against all your spines,
and you might shiver if you had skin
instead of leather and paper and ink,
all bound together in a spell
that makes him come back
each and every time

but you know better than to think
he will always find favor in your pages
because you know enough of humans
to recognize that feelings never last
and you could be just another
passing fancy in his life

it happened once,
and it may happen again

it is chilly
in this room of your own,
but still he keeps returning
like a curious child ever grasping
for some sense of purpose and meaning
in a world almost…