Tell me the author
is much better sounding than
the ISBN.

Stacks are closed, sign says.
That’s okay, since Madonna
poses on her shelf.

He sounded Black, as
though any book could do that.
Ain’t it us instead?

“No way!” she laughs at
her heavy text. “Shh!” he
says, “It’s research!”

It is NOT research.
Information retrieval
merely, and no more.