My Due

Our computer crashed so I darted into the library
to check e-mail, order some software, and get the contact number for Verizon support.

Imagine my dismay when I was denied computer access because of my overdue fines.

I couldn't be mad, I was guilty as usual.
The librarian was nice about it.
He offered the use of the Express Computer - no good library standing required.

The Express Computer is at the end of the long bank of computers,
(the ones in little carrels, where you can sit and surf for as long as you like.)

The Express Computer has no carrel, and no chair.
As soon as you begin your session, the countdown begins at the top of the screen.
Fifteen minutes.

I grabbed the chance and started typing away, as fast as I could.

Then the library began filling up, and the regular people,
the ones with no library fines,
started seating themselves at the regular computers.

Suddenly I had a little complex.
Here I was, sweating my way through the sites,
speed-typing and jotting info on those little slips of paper they provide,
(with the stubby no-eraser library pencils)
while the Others, the good people, sat in unhurried ease in their carrels.

I kept looking over at the tops of their heads,
bent in concentration and oblivious to my embarassment,
standing there awkardly,
exposed, at the Express Computer,
the one everybody knows is reserved for the likes of me.

Peace!

*