The Library Barrow-Wight By Jennifer Jordan

The Library Barrow-Wight

I’m reading, risking ruined eyesight. 
My rooms are dim, the house silent.
I know it’s late, but I won’t sleep tonight. 

I couldn’t resist the beckoning moonlight
Spilling under the window, effervescent. 
Sitting here, I’m risking ruined eyesight.

I woke the library barrow-wight;
This seduction began with my tacit consent. 
I know it’s late, but I won’t sleep tonight. 

Jealous ghosts of books unread, full of spite,
Roam empty rooms and whisper a complaint,  
“Read us before you risk ruined eyesight!”

One book’s too short to satisfy my appetite;
I devour pages, unrepentant. 
I know it’s late, but I won’t sleep tonight. 

Long ago I gave up the fight,
my book obsessions too persistent. 
It’s worth it, risking ruined eyesight. 
I know it’s late, but I won’t sleep tonight. 

Jennifer Jordan grew up in Liberia, West Africa, fleeing the approaching civil war with her family in 1990. She now lives in Wisconsin with her husband and daughter. She has a degree in architecture with additional studies in poetry and creative writing. Besides writing poetry, she enjoys gardening and attempting to keep her old German car on the road. She blogs at anewelephant.wordpress.com and has been previously published at Amethyst Review.