The library is covered,
floor to ceiling,
with government-issued brand-
new sixty-inch plasmoid screens
blaring infotainment
as fresh barista-
librarians serve coffee to the glass-
eyed teenage girls sitting
glued to screens and pods
as tampered texts pretending
to be books are fed
transposed to fantasies of juvenile fancy
while in a box of tempered glass
a lonely book is lost
in dreaming of that touch
from human eyes that once
had known how words
were formed
from ink into pubescent dreams.
In this poem there is no room for any aged librarian… Amaya hosts today at dVerse and wants us to write about the death of civilization.
—
February 13, 2020
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Poor lonely book. I wanna read it! 😉
Excellent Bjorn!
Oh no! My worst nightmare, Björn, no books! Our local libraries have computers but, thankfully, no fresh barista-librarians serving coffee, and no ‘tampered texts pretending to be books’. My heart goes out to that lonely lost book ‘…dreaming of that touch from human eyes’. I am so thankful that I had words ‘formed from ink into pubescent dreams’.
I liked this very much. I wonder if that book was ‘The Shadow of the Wind’? Which you surly must read, B, if you have not.
I need to read more… but that would mean writing less 🙂
I like your description of keeping real books locked up like ancient scrolls.
Your scenario would be a horrific death in so many ways 😦
What a dystopian vision of the world indeed, shades of FAHRENHEIT 451. The world as we know it, unfortunately is heading that direction, like rotary phones, phone booths, hard currency and so much more.
A world without paper books! I hope it never comes to that!
scary idea, great take on the prompt!
Yes, a lot of hyphens are needed for this new era of nonsensical reality. It is amazing how quickly the world forgets that texting is not writing. Soapbox social media diatribes are not literature. Let us always be the ones to pick up the old book off the shelf, no matter how dusty, no matter how so-called “irrelevant.”
kaykuala
Sadly books are destined to be decorative pieces a big slap from Amazon and their likes to eventually forgotten!
Hank
The the aged librarian nowhere to be seen! I fear your projection of future books and libraries is all too accurate.
Maybe the book was made into a film…
Very Fahrenheit 451.
A scary thought. Let’s keep books in their hands.
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I love to hold a book. But ironically my horizons have been multiplied with an online community, like in dVerse. hmmmm. Still, I hate to see them go and can hardly part with them. I am moving, in the midst of divorce. I have packed my books, I don’t really have space for them, but am striving to keep them. throwing them out feel like throwing out a person. love this Bjorn.
Oh that poor lost book. This was so sad, and moving to what might become.
A frightening possibility that is hard to imagine. I was shocked when they took cursive writing out of our schools. Hoping this could never be next.
A library without books–now that is a very horrible thought. 😦