On Looking Into Creeley's "Pieces"

So long since
I used
a library card
as a bookmark.
And this
not even a library book
anymore, pulled
from the shelves
in 1981, Creeley
too much for
an Illinois
high school librarian
in Reagan’s heart-
land. Never
checked out,
no violet date
stamp on card
or backslip;
page 9 dog-eared,
ID numbers
blocked into
margin, title page.
It will look
stolen on my shelf,
as if I smuggled it past
The Librarian Mr. Foil,
stuffed in my belt
small of the back
under my windbreaker.
No one has to know
that Mr. Foil
would never have put
Robert Creeley
on our school shelves.
Or that I bought it
online from
a used bookstore
just weeks ago.

Brian Spears is the poetry editor of The Rumpus (http://www.therumpus.net). His first collection of poems, A Witness in Exile, is forthcoming from Louisiana Literature Press. His poetry has been published in Quarterly West, storySouth, The Southern Review and Measure among other journals, and he currently teaches literature and creative writing at Florida Atlantic University.

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