Your Favorite Librarian
An Abecedarian Poem
Awkward boy. Poor boy. Glasses swallow his pimpled face yet hang down a
Bulbous nose, as weird wiry buttons and pins on his jacket
Crowd out the
Denim. He slides his book stack
Evenly across the chipped Formica circulation desk
For checkout:
“Greek Myths.” “Perseus Revisited.” “Osiris Laughed.”
He clears his throat, but voice still cracks,
“I really liked the last one you recommended. The one about
Jupiter, Zeus, Thor and thunder.” She smiles back
Kindly, from the other side of the circulation desk.
Library Sciences didn’t quite prep her for this—
Matching humans with books, when maybe what the kid
Needed most was other kids. How to tell him
One day there will be others, like him,
People not
Quite like the
Rest.
Still, youth’s social wheel churned, chewed, and spit out
The bones; an ugly game to
Umpire. “Ah yes, well after these, we’ll have to introduce you to some mythic underdogs,
Venerable rogues and the like,” she
Winks. A honk outside resounds with the beep of the
Xerox machine in the back: his grandma’s old beater Buick out front.
“You got it!” He smiles, all buck teeth, waves bye, books in arms.
Zany boy. Lucky boy, with the whole world ahead, in his hands.
About the Creator
Kate Kastelberg
-cottage-core meets adventure
-revels in nature, mystery and the fantastical
-avoids baleful gaze of various eldritch terrors
-your Village Witch before it was cool
-under command of cats and owls
-let’s take a Time Machine back to the 90s
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Compelling and original writing
Creative use of language & vocab
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
Masterful proofreading
Zero grammar & spelling mistakes
On-point and relevant
Writing reflected the title & theme
Comments (2)
I adore this! Wonderful - and extremely well-written. Bravo!
This speaks to me... :)