Tom Kelly

What He Knows

He followed someone and by mistake
ended up in the library-
he was shocked.
He had never been in a library before,
the only book at home was a rent book.

He was embarrassed.
Didn’t know what to do,
should he pay?
Does he have to ask to leave?
He’s led out like a bear on a lead,
returned to the street,
to what he knows.

first published in Their Lives, from Tears in the Fence (1995)

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