The library cat licks her paw,
turns the page in Slaughter-House Five,
and hisses at the text,
while two teenaged sisters
stand in the non-fiction section
holding a book in their hands
so that their hovering mother
will think they are researching slime molds
for the upcoming Shape-Shifters’ Fair.
But they are secretly talking trash in forest pixie
about a schoolmate with no eyes
and a head like a cabbage.
A librarian replaces books on the shelves
with her eight tentacles.
She has won Employee of the Month six straight times.
A woman with a baby dragon on a leash
inquires at the desk about books on home repair.
The old man at the magazine table,
who is doing the daily crossword, screams out:
Does anyone know a ten-letter word for “medicinal stardust”?
The announcement over the intercom
says the library will be closing in one chapter.
