In honor of National Library and Student Employee Appreciation Week, enjoy a poem written by CarlaJean Valluzzi, Student Assistant, Circulation Department.
Such Gainful Employment
By CarlaJean ValluzziI push the cart | weave a path through the stacks | forgetting it there in front of me.
Maybe it’s the air from some other age |caught between | each thin skin of page,
preserved | : | proteose colloids, condensed tannins, pastes of wheat and rice;
it just feels right | tastes sweet to be so fortunate | to spend my days, voluminous
amongst my favorite strangers | some of whom I’ve laid my eyes upon | near spiritual occasions.
I read the names as I pass, the call numbers | long for the sun to stay | high a little bit longer
as though to conjure | such lives as they have | out of nothing but my own mind . . .
That’s where you can find me | on a Monday, or a Friday | wheeling, shelving; listening quietly.