POSTCARD FROM THE LIBRARY FIRE

A scroll on the Doppler effect written by one Dionysus of Thebes. A book, that when opened, became a kite. It is said that the kite was always the same color as the sky it was flown in. A book that predicted the future. They say it ended with the year 2010. Lost. All lost in the library fire. The tour guide says he stayed up all night reading my poems to his wife. The gum he is chewing does not mask the ouzo on his breath. A former slave, his adopted name is Free Man Ray. There was even a book on the history of the wave that toppled the colossus at Rhodes. Wandering though the ruins without you I wish you were here and that we were strangers. I like the picture on the front, do you? The splayed book, the three roofing nails pinning the pages back, the flames.