i'm sitting on an empty shelf
between volumes 782.503 and 783.3
as dust gathers around my cover
& mites nibble my binding
occasionally unknown hands
pull my jacket, scan my contents
then promptly shove me back –
in a world with so many volumes
i'm inconsequential:
a cadaver of cellulose
in a vast intellectual morgue
where millions rest in oblivion
largely ignored
soon enough
a library employee will examine me
and decide other works
are more worthy
of the space
then
in a disposal box
i'll experience
the fire of wisdom
and once again
know the bliss
of being erased
|
| Ella: |
Isn't the emptiness of this poem oppressive? |
| Shu: |
(surprised) Most of the oppression we encounter is inside the mind. |
| Jack: |
No – cut the rhetorical crap. Can't you see? There's something genuinely stifling here. |
| Ella: |
One reason this poem stinks is it is cloaked in self-denial. Curiously, this is because the author identifies too much with his written works. Many authors are guilty of that. So rotting is a good thing. |
| Shu: |
(Smiling faintly with a trace of disdain) False refuge. |
| Ella: |
Also, the author is also too confident of his own insignificance. No one knows how history will write them – and only vain people really care. |
| Jack: |
Yep! Pride can warp into twisted self-denial: it almost has a pious stink. |
| Juanita: |
(shrugging her shoulders) Well, let's move on and breathe. . . |
|
