The Ninth Street Book Burning

"Ninth Street Bookstore to close March 31
Dwindling sales and high rent lead owner to close the downtown shop" (headline from the Columbia Missourian newspaper). Many of the books were burned.

Franny and Zooey
and Rabbit and Scout
run from their pages
to scream and to shout.

Gatsby and Holden
are stricken with fear
with Lenny and George
as their pages sear.

The characters run
to escape the flames,
from page to page their
future the same.

Tom and Huck Finn float
to their grave, as Jem
and Scout find safety
in Tom Sawyer's cave.

Hester Prynne weeps as
she offers great thanks
to hide with Anne and
the rest of the Franks.

Nancy finds refuge
in a hidden staircase,
as Sal and Dean drive on
with no time to waste.

Not enough books sold
to pay the high rent
readers these days are
much less frequent.

Stories and ideas
are lost and forgot,
the words disappear
along with the plots.

The shop owner cries
and slides to the floor
as the pages burn in the
the Ninth Street bookstore.