There he sits
enveloped in a world of his own
created by the precious authors
of the fiction he so happily reads.
The girls across the library
haughtily snicker and giggle
as they tear apart every inch of him.
He hears, he knows.
The librarian ashamedly stares and sighs.
She hears the comments of her own daughter,
she knows.
The football jocks laugh wildly
while they cruelly degrade
the country he calls home.
The small, quiet girl
standing by book stacks angrily frowns at her ex.
She hears, she knows.
All the while he sits tranquilly.
He's no longer in the library,
he's gratefully on a perilous journey
through treacherous foreign lands
fighting off evil lurking around every corner
just waiting to pounce.
In these battles it's different
than his everyday life.
In these battles, he wins.