Reflecting on the library
and the work we put into it.
I think about divisions of l ab o r
Different job classifications cross paths and converge
in our common purpose to serve the public.
There’s a will to a system in this thinking,
but it is immersive too. I pay
attention
to
my coworkers’ emotions
and how it feels to “work together”.
I read practically everything but the books.
Unlike most any other job
I’ve ever had
No day is a defeat!
Except maybe the day longer
that a book takes to get back
on the shelf,
because our budget allows for
late-night security guards
not late-night pages.
And Now For Something Completely Different 
To share in conversation, a poem of my own entitled “The Library at Night,” written September 25th 2011 and as yet unpublished, here is a transcription:
The Library at Night
Why
Why were all the lights on
In the library
tonight?
Was our knowledge taken from
the library tonight?
While the bright star shone
in the east was Arcturus
or an old Jupiter
Showing his graces to us
From this sky-set lantern
I searched among these haunts –
That pub closing up
The bicycle unlocked
Those failures of chance
love’s gambler casts, then,
Two black rocks turn
up
and up…
When,
Where did they roll
off the 23rd western avenue
at Coffee Time?
or Joe’s?
No, it was the Stone
that’s the same it’s always been
from morning until night
The place where thieves and teens
And vagrant types
Write books of their misfortune
For the induction
Into the stacks
Of the library at night
– G.D. Burns