Poem: The Sentina

Sundays she likes to walk alone a great distance,

As the distance to the library is far,

And the library is her only escape,

She finally gets that long awaited escape,

Sweet, so sweet, distance it brings,

Only Sundays she gets to leave.

But she swears the distance is short on Sundays,

Unable to distance herself further past the library,

She reads her book at the library while she waits to escape,

To get up and escape farther past the library,

That grand public library that brings sweet distance,

Yet not enough distance for a lonely Sunday.

Weekly her distance comes in the form of Sunday,

The streets are quiet as she creates distance to the library,

That library at the corner that brings escape,

Ignoring the world outside the library as she escapes,

But again, the library brings little distance,

She sighs wishing the distance was greater on Sundays.

It rains the day she gets to distance herself, on Sunday,

She whines as she seeks that distance at the library,

She can’t leave to the library, she can’t escape,

But she dreams of that escape that is promised by the big library.

That one beautiful library that she doesn’t get to use for an excused distance then,

Out of all the days it rains on her walks to distance herself, on Sunday.

That next week she hopes to get that distance on Sunday,

She happily awaits that distance she gets as she walks to the library,

She knows that week the library will bring her a longer peace as she escapes,

She still needs to distress at the library from her failed attempt to escape the prior week,

That so missed distance she did not get last week at the library,

But nothing will stop her from getting that sweet distance on Sunday.

It is sunny and warm and that blessed distancing walk, beautiful Sunday,

She skips toward the library in her yellow sundress as she creates distance,

She opens the big doors of that library and breaths in the scent of her escape,

She walks to that comfortable chair she has claimed as hers in her escape at the library,

With a smile she grabs a library book and soaks in her sweet, so sweet, distance,

She closes her eyes as she inhales the aroma of her sweet distance on that beautiful Sunday.

She doesn’t know what she would do if her sweet escapes to the library ended,

If the promise of a sweet distance from her house would be robbed,

She would go mad without those liberating beautiful Sundays.