I’m not sure how long I can do refgrunts in various poetic forms, but here’s another one!

I’m working an evening reference shift
Jeff Spicoli‘s doppleganger asks me a question.
He’ll have to use interlibrary loan.
She wishes all the articles were full text.
I show a girl how to search the New York Times.
Books with PQ call numbers are over there.

A professor wants a floppy disk for the microform machine, I go there
after grabbing a disk from my cubicle, then shift
back to my place at the reference desk. Time’s
passing quickly, everyone has a question
I look up ERIC documents, I can’t spell the text
“temperamental children”. I wish someone would loan

me an extra brain, but instead I loan
a boy with dreads some whiteout. The printers are there.
She’s doing music research and shows me a miniature piano. Text
of the sheet music glued to the front is tiny. It’s a music box! Her hands shift
to the back and she winds it a quarter turn. You might question
me listening to a few bars of automated song, but sometimes

everyone needs music. I barely hear the melody, the time’s
now 6:33 PM. Another student needs the loan
of a ruler and he has a question
about where books are. Right over there
I say, showing him a map. I warn about the book shift,
the map’s not totally accurate. He goes to find his text.

Lexis Nexis search for info on Sudan. I find the text
of Colin Powell’s speech about genocide. Times
today are tragic and uncertain. It’s raining outside. I shift
in my chair to answer the phone, a loan
query about a dvd. I transfer the call. There
is a hush in the library, nobody has a question.

A group of students looks up baseball news. No question-
Yankees suck. I’m sorry it doesn’t look like that text
book is on reserve. A gaggle of girls giggle there
near the printer. I can’t find a journal, I hate times
like this, his prof said it was here but it isn’t. Try Interlibrary Loan.
One and a half hours left of this reference shift.

There’s a copy of American Libraries I could read but I question
if it will keep me alert. I shift my gaze, eyes can’t focus on printed text
These are the times that last forever, sitting at the desk alone