The Process / by Brian Kunde

The Process
by Brian Kunde

A man there was who wrote a book;
A publisher who bought it,
And advertised the same to hook
The masses. Many sought it.

A flier reached the library,
Which hardly could ignore it.
So Acquisitions presently
Approved an order for it.

The book arrived, was invoiced, paid,
And date-stamped as our own,
And classified, and finally laid
Upon the shelves, for loan.

But fashions ebb and fashions flow,
And public interest faded
Before it reached the patrons, so
It sat there, and degraded.

It mouldered twenty years till one
Fine day the folk who must
Go through and weed the stacks found none
Had touched the thing but dust.

Unneeded, for a year or two
Its fate remained in doubt
Till someone took the plunge, and threw
The faded copy out.

It might appear that that was it,
But fashions changed again,
And since some patron wanted it,
We ordered it again.

* * * * *

The Process

from Bibliotec(hnic)a : Poems, Sep. 24, 2013.
An earlier version appeared in
SUL News Notes, v. 2, no. 48, Dec. 10, 1993.

1st web edition posted 5/15/2014.