I.N.L.A.
(Iraqi National Library & Archive)

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Overdue fines, I'd guess, are no
big concern for librarians in Baghdad.
Nor are unruly patrons or pages torn
from misfiled books, not food in
the study rooms or a transfer left
on the hold shelf a little too long.

A staff of four hundred and fifty
and not a week without a death
threat, ninety visitors on a good
day, none on a bad one, the building
a magnet for mortar shells, punishment
for the crime of information.

Mutanabi Street destroyed, the book
market bombed, the sky a tumble of
paper and grief, "The Complete Works
of Saddam Hussein" stacked in the
corner, waiting for the translation
of a tongue perhaps more forgiving
than ours and the librarians continue
to report for duty, counting each
morning as its own version of success