2007/wandering

Wandering the library
for a comfortable place.
Hard chair in the study carrel
and cell-like window.
I don’t seem
to like libraries
any more,
though from time to time
I try to.
I hate the silence,
I can have that at home.
And yet there are distractions.
Rattling papers and voices.
I don’t like the musty, old books
or plastic book jackets.
I want to be frugal
and check out books.
But I get nervous in here.
Maybe it’s because libraries have
become the refuge of the homeless.

I feel lost,like they must,
wandering without purpose
or direction.
Trying to find a place
to sit down,
to decide what
I should do next.
Trying to pass,
working on poems I’ve brought,
as though it matters
to anyone but me.

2/6/07