Old Libraries

By Donna M. Davis

Conservators know the aromas of old books and the matter that forms them, 
the rate at which paper decomposes, the glue and the lignin, 
the stiff cardboard jackets or tooled leather covers.

Cellulose dissolves slowly, melds invisibly with the air, 
fills your nostrils with hints of earth and vanilla. 
Forest mushrooms pop up their plump thumbs and turn pages. 

You can sense which books have been handled with great passion, 
not left to languish on shelves — books that were read after breakfast
and strong coffee on mornings following a thunderstorm —

books that were hearts carved in brown bark, crooked initials engraved 
with unwavering devotion — beloved volumes, havens of comfort, 
folios of crumbling leaves, the smells of smoke and wood. 

Donna M. Davis lives in central New York. She has been published in Slipstream Review, The Comstock Review, Third Wednesday, Raven’s Perch, Tipton Poetry Journal, Pudding, The Raw Art Review, and others with poetry forthcoming in One Art magazine and Ekphrastic Review. Donna was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was a contest winner and featured writer in various magazines. During her years as a business operator, she designed poetry chapbooks through The Comstock Review, Inc., including Ted Kooser’s book At Home.. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Slipstream Review and Tiny Seed Journal’s, Anthology of the Wildflowers.