for all librarians
I used as a prompt photos of a certain librarian(*) in glasses,
holding in her teeth a red pencil, reading Albert Camu's "Plague",
a white dog resting at her feet.
* * *
for all librarians
when the time of pestilence came
and they had to face locust, plague, drought, and fire
sent by Enemies of the Books (you never know about this
"Eat Party" folk, they talk the talk but do they walk the walk?
yes they yap a lot about deficit reduction and freedoms
that big government can take away but
push comes to shove, if they could they would
take away your books and force you to read the Book
and Ayn Rand, anyway)
when the time of pestilence came
the Protective Goddess asked
her friendly Dragon to take
upon the form of a Wrathful White Dog
with a Dark Patch Around Her Left Eye
(to look even more scarier)
and then she herself took
upon the form of a Librarian
waved her magic red pencil
opened her red umbrella of Cherbourg
to protect the city of truly weird
(also known as Austin, Texas)
and like a tornado descended
upon Enemies of the Books
not even Moses with his magic tricks
or Hercules with his seven tasks
would be able to match her force and resolve
(and, frankly, those were some mean dudes
knowing how to conquer a city or a lady
but I digress, what I wanna say is that)
some claim it was all about her long
leather shoes going all the way up
to her knees, others attribute it to her magic
tattoos covering her arms and back
and there are even those who think
it was all about her veil of ignorance
but those in the knowing know
you cannot walk through the door without walking
and that it was not about the shoes or tattoos
not even about the veil of ignorance
(introduced by the Harvard philosopher John Rawls
as a heuristic device helping to make decisions
about justice)
it was all about the glasses
for, time of pestilence or time of joy
there is nothing more sexy than
a librarian in glasses
holding in her teeth a red pencil
reading a book by a French philosopher
one way or another
it was over quickly
_______
(*) The truth be told, I used as a prompt
several different photos
of several different librarians
all in glasses and all very sexy.