In the reading room <br />A boy takes notes <br />From a World Book volume. <br />His school report's <br />About the telescope <br />Or Alexander <br />Or (that old show-stopper) <br />The Venus flytrap. <br /> <br />Snow falling outside, <br />A radiator hisses; <br />Inquiries are whispered; <br />Someone coughs; a book closes <br />With an audible thump. <br />Newspapers on spindles <br />Hang, limp verticals, <br />In a rack by a lamp. <br /> <br />And the boy, determined, <br />With his pencil scratches <br />His notepad's green-lined <br />Yellow pages. . . . <br />Companionable room, <br />In that early darkness <br />You stood in promise <br />Of a sunnier time. <br /> <br />From broad shallow shades, <br />The bulbs over the tables <br />Gloss the rich wood's <br />Grainy surfaces, <br />Though the dark grow deeper, <br />Though the boy discover <br />The streets all quiet <br />Through the homeward night.<br /><br />Timothy Steele<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/homage-to-a-carnegie-library/
