Angry Villager Anthology--"Tome Reader"

[The twenty-fifth installment in the month-long poetry sequence that began on October 1st.]


"Tome Reader"

Heyward "Stacks" Calhoun

Here in the shadowy bowels of Grantwood Library
Lie the various volumes too scandalous for circulation.
Such as the history of Ben Thompson's would-be rebellion,
And the extremely unauthorized biography of Felicia Healey.
Not to mention this weighty, kid-skin-covered tome,
Which I'd studied nightly for years before my perseverance
Finally seemed to bear fruit on the first of October.
But not half an hour ago the shivaree shambled past my house,
Causing me to hurry back here to my solitary workplace.
Pricking the scarred tip of my left index finger with my dagger,
I turn now to the appropriate page, launch into Latinate chant,
And do my damnedest to prevent the Monster's execution.