Bucktown/Wicker Park Public Library, Friday, April 18, 2014, 2:25 pm.

Bucktown/Wicker Park Public Library,

Friday, April 18, 2014, 2:25 pm.

First Floor:

The tables are nearly full, so I

camp out at the edge of the

one nearest the meeting rooms

and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Outside, the fresh grass peeks

through last fall’s dead leaves.

My nose starts to run and I

turn back to the quiet bookshelves

in this corner of the library:

Test Prep and Careers.

Their shelves are filled with titles

like The Princeton Review guide to the

SAT/GMAT/LSAT/ACT

Job Search Letters, Resumes, or

Interviews for Dummies

Postal Exam Preparation

How to be a State Trooper

Get Your Captain’s License!

No one else here is concerned

with any of that, just

How do I print this?

What’s the wifi?

Where’s the nearest 7-11?

or my favorite overheard conversation,

between a mother and a son:

“Can I go up there?”

“No, not now.”

“But I asked!”

“Yes, and thank you so much

for asking respectfully, but my

answer is no.”

Followed by the stubborn

stomps of a child who’s asked and expects

the answer to be yes.

Because what’s the point in

asking otherwise? Aren’t we

all just asking to go “up there,”

wherever that may be,

not for actual permission, but

just to be polite?

And when the universe answers

no, we stomp around anyway,

like children in a public library

on a Friday afternoon.

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I wrote this (mostly) at the library in honor of National Library Week. Visit your library! You never know how it might inspire you.