Just turn the wooden latch
and inside a cubby you will find
beside The God Delusion
the Selected Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas;
a tattered Crime and Punishment
bumping up against Plumbing for Dummies,
romance novels, a stack of children's books
lying on their sides as if for afternoon nap.
When did I first notice them among us,
sprouting up as they have
at ballfields, among sycamores
on humid Philadelphia streets?
Think of their squarish heads
crammed with knowledge or emptied out.
Think of them gazing at the traffic
through the cataracts
of filmy plastic windows.
Or the selflessness involved,
green paint flecking off
as they stand in all weather
on the post of one leg
for the giving and taking—
for the offering of books.

Joseph Chelius is the author of two collections of poems with WordTech Communications: The Art of Acquiescence and Crossing State Lines. His work has appeared in Commonweal, Poet Lore, Poetry East, Rattle, and other journals.