Saturday afternoon. No one’s here.
Only a girl and a thousand books.
No one is here…no one sees her as she runs through the book-lined cases.
No one observes the laughter.
No one sees her peering through the shelves
like a small child
peering into a secret world
peering into fantasy.
No one comes down the steps into the basement.
No one comes down the steps into the thick yet subtle
waters of old-bound hardbacks, fresh new paperbacks.
In the place without sound
No one but the girl hears the words shout.
No one but the girl walks through and touches the empty spaces.
Not all of her finds them beautiful
Not all of her finds them tragic.
Saturday afternoon.
A girl peers through the book-lined cases
Surrounded by laughter, shouting words, fantasy,
Surrounded by waters of old-bound hardbacks, fresh new paperbacks,
Surrounded by the empty spaces – beautiful and tragic.
She leaves without reading one of them.
She mumbles something about “the end.”
in case of books 