There are children in the library.
And their footfalls
are heavier than
I expected.
Children who
look over their
shoulders
to make sure
their pursuers
are close behind.
They race past me
and my open
spiral. Smiles
full of secrets;
they know
I know they regularly
access a happiness
I can only find
in slender novels.
And their laughs
are deeper than
I expected.
Children who
show no reverence
for the truly
villainous antagonists
scraping, occasionally,
the backs of their
heels.
They lead shadows
that brush black
against my chair—
make me shiver.
Wind in their sails,
running gleefully
from the monsters
who aren’t really
monsters
at all.
