The Poetry Book

It was a thin book of poems 
that a long ago librarian 
thought an excellent addition 
to the collection 
even though she opened 
the newly arrived book but once 
before dipping her crow quill pen 
into the special white ink 
to pen a Dewey decimal eight one one 
to the thin spine 
that tried her patience
that sultry summer afternoon
in July of nineteen forty one
then the library card 
and envelope typed and glued 
inside the cover
and later the poems were squeezed
between two larger books
and then forgotten
and for over half a century 
before finally touched again 
by human hands 
and then dropped into a cardboard box
which was later stacked 
among the others in a basement
to await 
an annual used book sale
although the poems
were still 
unused.