The Book Lady

[ I only learned recently that libraries 'prune' their stock of books that aren't taken out often enough-- I had always, naively, assumed all the books would live 'forever' in their temple of words.] She travels with grace through the caverns of books, searching for the neglected, the forgotten, the abandoned, then slowly, sadly, she pulls them off the shelves and places them in the Box of Fate, destined now either for adoption or a re-incarnation in some lesser form-- perhaps as paper bags or toilet paper: what once had been thoughts, poems, even magical words....