Library Card

Not hard to obtain, this library card
for a ten-year-old boy who's
barred from computer, persuaded
to read with the promised reward of
screen time and Skyping, but later.
Incredible thought! I have read for
at least half a century. The fake
worlds in games can't come close
to replacing those worlds we discover,
or could, if we opened the covers
of books. Proper books, too,
with bindings and pages and pictures
to take us, escaping the bonds
of this earth, to places we'd only
imagined. It sounds antiquated to
start a debate over future of
next generations, and there's few
who would care what I think.
But there's one little ten-year-old boy,
I dare say, who may learn to love
reading if only because this ten-year-old
boy loves his Nana. And whose
Nana will strictly insist he spends time,
over summer, with books. Not a lot,
with plenty left over for swimming,
tree-climbing and such, but enough,
and it starts with a card.


(c) Ellen Gillette, 2013