The Public Library

The Public Library is a very interesting place.
Its penthouse - high ceilings, penthouse views.
Electric black curtain drapes
That lowers automatically with great fanfare
whenever there is too much sunlight
Flooding through its penthouse windows,
Watching the drapes roll down
is almost like watching a performance itself.

The Public Library is a very interesting place.
It's quiet, cool and serene,
yet one is not allowed to sleep.
It has shelves upon neat shelves of books, magazines, periodicals and journals,
Mostly new and unread, unbrowsed.
Decent peoples,
Young, old, formal,sloppy,
Asian, Caucasian,
seated on reading desks
religiously working on their laptops
Headphones meant to shut out,
loud music blaring only into private ears.
Each subscribed to private worlds.

Nobody's reading the books sitting on the shelves.
The librarians do not seem to mind.
Perhaps they too, are in a world of their own.

The Public Library is a very interesting place.
Many worlds exists and yet they do not mingle.
They exist alone,
confined to individual souls.
No talking, no whispering.
A place to read yet none is reading,
Yet everyone can be so accessible to knowledge and information
with their laptops.

The Pubic library is a very interesting place indeed.