Reshelving / by Brian Kunde

Reshelving
by Brian Kunde

The Patrons must believe an elf
Restores their reading to the shelf:
While by and large they own the grace
Of tracking down the storage place
Of every book they’re yearning for,
Thereafter, they forget this lore.

Then wantonly, without a care,
They leave the books most everywhere,
No matter where they got them, so
They end up scattered to and fro.
What they pick up they don’t put back.
The lowly page takes up the slack.

In this new age, who’s sticking up
For those whose job is picking up—
A drudgery whose convolutions
Poorly fit high-tech solutions?
Without our pages, Heaven knows
If aught would get back where it goes.

* * * * *

Reshelving

from Bibliotec(hnic)a : Poems, Sep. 24, 2013.
An earlier version appeared in
SUL News Notes, v. 2, no. 29, Jul. 23, 1993.

1st web edition posted 9/27/2013.