The Bad Book Affair

BOOKMOBILE

I spend part of my childhood waiting

for the Stearns County Bookmobile.

When it comes to town, it makes a

U-turn in front of the grade school and

glides into its place under the elms.

It is a natural wonder of late

afternoon. I try to imagine Dante,

William Faulkner, and Emily Dickinson

traveling down a double lane highway

together, country-western on the radio.

Even when it arrives, I have to wait.

The librarian is busy, getting out

the inky pad and the lined cards.

I pace back and forth in the line,

hungry for the fresh bread of the page,

Because I need something that will tell me

what I am; I want to catch a book,

clear as a one-way ticket, to Paris,

to London, to anywhere.

Joyce Sutphen