Poetry

Victoria Jones-Burney
They Changed the Library
I was never meant to make it this far.
I never planned to be old enough to drive a car

I knew that the times ahead would be scary
So I left my soul with the girl in the library

Her bobbles clacked with every turned page
Surrounded by books a bit too mature for her age

So deep in her stories she didn't hear me go
I crept through the cramped halls and left her alone

She read book after book and there were some she read twice
She stacked them high despite her mother's advice

Tears at home cost her love, freedom, and dolls
But heartache was free within those old walls

I left her there because it's where she was cared for
What happened next wasn't something she was prepared for

The dim beige lighting was suddenly bright white
The walls drifted apart, there were no nooks where she could hide

Times have changed, it's natural to move forward
But what about the people who have nothing to move towards?

It didn't occur to me that I had no control
I thought I'd found a good resting place for my soul

I felt a shake in my knees, it just didn't feel real
They traded in her old wood for brushed steel

She must feel so scared, so helpless
I kicked myself, how could I leave her like this?

I can hear her voice asking me what took so long
Telling me that something happened, everything's wrong

I checked every corner, looking for a darkened passage
Looking for a face too small for its glasses

I listened for the sound of her Mary Jane shoes on the floor
But if she's walking on the fresh new carpet I can't be sure

Time has not been kind to me, and I knew that would happen
But I let life go on and now it's a prison that I'm trapped in

The soul I left behind is something I never again will see
Because I came back to find that They Changed the Library