Midnight Library

midnight library

by Jared Simmonds

a revelation is a victim.

timid visage, bullied

to the lip of existence,

it shivers

like an acrophobic child

then crosses the threshold

without so much as wincing.

voyeurs’ temple, purged

of all your missionaries,

these reposed halls

now reaffirm their sovereignty

sparing only

some slow, majestic powerlessness

for everything and anything

that remains

seductively indefinable,

unknown

and uncorrupted.