Branch Library by Edward Hirsch
We read Special Orders by Edward Hirsch for my poetry discussion group, which met at my house yesterday. There were mixed feelings in the group about this poem. I really liked it because it made me remember being dropped off at our local library when I was a child. I could have spent days in there, but I’m pretty sure my mother restricted it to hours. Those were the days. Fat chance I’d leave a 7-year-old alone in a public library these days…
I just started reading Books: A Memoir by Larry McMurtry. Shockingly, he was not exposed to books as a young child and in fact, his family’s house contained no books that he can remember.
Branch Library
By Edward Hirsch
I wish I could find that skinny, long-beaked boy
who perched in the branches of the old branch library.
He spent the Sabbath flying between the wobbly stacks
and the flimsy wooden tables on the second floor,
pecking at nuts, nesting in broken spines, scratching
notes under his own corner patch of sky.
I’d give anything to find that birdy boy again
bursting out into the dusky blue afternoon
with his satchel of scrawls and scribbles,
radiating heat, singing with joy.
