
“Do that somewhere else,”
said the prune lipped
banana nosed
apricot eared
tomato headed high school librarian
when she caught me lingering over Brave New World
So many places to stop
squeeze the covers
sniff the ends
look for brown spots
cobwebs and signs of spoilage
Delicious and ripe fruits
So close to my nose and near sighted eyes
It was her mission to keep me away from tantalizing words
revolutionary black marks on onion white pages
and artichokian abstractions
I plucked the pages, grape by grape, illegally
and popped them into my mouth
hiding behind the stacks of fresh and purple prose
When she turned to restack the encyclopedia display
I dashed out the back door
Dickinson and Twain in hand
dropping strawberry stems as I fled