1.

Feeling typical, but no real worry.

Sitting in an armed chair, firm back, neck still swollen from a sleep gone

awry.

The library is louder than usual.

Children chanting:

magic show

magic show

show

me

some

magic

downstairs.

Sounds curl and crawl up the stairs along with a man holding a can of Arizona Iced Tea,

He paces.

2.

Man from the street corner near the Local rests himself on the bench adjacent to the windows.

Parks himself in the Teen Zone.

His body feels a particular kind of heavy from this distance.

A purple‐nearing‐black eye swollen shut, he fumbles for his sunglasses.

The sound of his loitering no frills bag touches the

magic show in my ears.

3.

Man across from me laughs a laugh of stunted growth.

He is visibly embarrassed.

I cannot smile to his context but I smile to tell him

it is good to laugh in a library.

I assume most authors appreciate a reaction,

especially when there is the distraction of a magic show downstairs

and a throated human garble clashes with high-pitched squeals of anticipation within walls not used to certain levels of

roister.

What I mean to say is,

his laugh feels refreshing.

4.

I realize the bubbling man is looking at a book of human anatomy.

I guess our parts can be humored,

especially when rendered by a water-colourist from the fifties.

5.

Woman’s headphones are too loud.

She is sitting across from me wearing a shirt that says,

“IT’S OVER!”

A picture of a bride and groom hover over the text.

6.

Digital salsa music or something ironically similar.

Boy in Misfit t-shirt reaches towards his pockets.

Clicking ‘ignore’, I watch him for a moment as he continues to read about wizardry, his mouth rolling along with his brain.

7.

Man that walks up and down the street smiling seventeen times a day

enters the room.

Teen Zone seems popular today.

He grabs a book at random and though I am unable to see what he is reading,

it is the first time I have seen him sit and

focus.

I wonder if reading will give him conflicting wrinkles.

8.

magic show magic show

show

me

magic show

me

Kids clapping

simultaneously,

they get

shushed.

–

Banner Photo by Sabarah Pilon