On a Libary Shelf one Afternoon

So, I'm sitting here in the library, just glancing at the rows upon rows of dusty books, wondering to myself, Just who was the last person to pick one up? What was he like, was he picking them up out of genuine interest, or just a moment's curiousity?

Who knows? But I just can't help thinking about it, just like I can't stop from putting my pencil down, ignoring my past due homework, and running my fingers over their heavy, fragile covers. And my thoughts begin to drift to different things, like how much more time will they be here? These printed words, do even they have an expiration date? We tend to think of printed material as a form of immortalization, but, if truth be told, aren't books also subject to being chucked away and lost in the passage of time?

Now, I know that some books live on, singing their songs for the rest of eternity (if the human race lasts that long that is). The lists are long of the books that will live on, just as the list of men that will live on through the testaments of time. But are there books that will entertain us for a brief time, then slide away, deeper and deeper into oblivion, till the point where all of the ideas and words it held are just as if they'd never been written?

As I sit in this deserted libary corner, musing over these old, dusty volumes, I realize just how similar books are to people. Just how we all wish we could break out into something special, something everlastingly endearing that will never fade away. But reality doesn't give out mercy cards, oh no, reality just coldly walks past us with its head held up high, not even nodding to acknowledge our existence.

-You hear that, books, we're not so different, you and I.

But all I get back for a response is their persistent silence. I guess they've accepted their new niches in life, space fillers in an enormous library. For if we take away all of the non-great books, what would we have? Open, vacant libraries?

So I just shrug, I shake off the feeling that I'm just here to take up space and keep the world from looking too empty. I just pick up my pencil and resume my past due homework.