کلمه

Painting by Jonathan Wolstenholme (British, b. 1950)
Still Life: "Books", Watercolor


THE WORD

The sage said: We are all books
In the great Library of God.
(He was a bookish person.)

One asked: Does He ever
Take us out?
We spend our years as a tale that is told.

The sage said: His will be done
In the Library as it is Elsewhere.

One asked: But perhaps
He is only interested in first editions,
Not in reprints, abridgements, strip cartoon
Or other adaptations?

The sage said: His love speaks volumes.
He is a speed reader. He is no respecter
Of Bestseller lists.
He suffers the little magazines to come unto Him.

Some hoped their jackets would be clean
And well pressed when the call was heard,
Their loins girded about and their lights burning.

God thought: I wrote all the books,
Now they expect Me to read them.

- D. J. ENRIGHT
(Dennis Joseph Enright, a British poet, novelist and critic, 11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002)