Monday, July 21, 2014

JANE CORNMAN'S LIBRARY CARD




There was no woman, I think, named Jane Cornman
Living in 1946 at my mother’s address
On Bristol Place. Still, she had a library card
From Brooklyn College (probably expired now).
My mother, no Cornman, had cousins of that large clan
Even now, years after she died, she occasionally
Springs a new one on me (Lemports too, and Perlows)
But surely I’d have heard of one who shared her house

(As did her cousin Sy when he went to the school
And my grandfather gave him a dime every day).

Jane Cornman signed her card in my mother’s handwriting
Agreeing to obey the rules of the College library,
She would  not run, chew gum or deface books
And would return them on or before the day they were due.
 
My mother (dead for eight years now)  has surely
Reconnnected with Jane Cornman (in the afterworld
No one cares if you’re fictional. This will be
A very great solace to me after I’ve died).
Brooklyn College librarians hear the noises made
By two ghosts, running through the stacks.
       

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