The Library

I love to get lost
In the miraculous world

Of words and sonnets and fiction
And history and fables

Of groaning floorboards
And deathly silence

Of unbounded shelves
And limitless words

It reeks of familiar, musty odor
Of adventure and lust and defeat

From a brisk captain’s mate
To an elegant Southern belle

A foe-fighting wizard
Or a vehemently battling soldier

The enchanting library is guilty
Of holding me hostage

Right up until the final word
Of the final sentence

And that reverberating clump
Of the finished book.