Today the man without a nose came into the library. A regular. His face below his eyes is flat, a little concave even, and his mouth is somewhere between where a nose and mouth usually go. It opens in a small "o" big enough, perhaps, for two pinky fingers. He wanted help getting on the internet. I showed him how. He wanted to look up flickr where someone had posted a photo of him and a poem.

I couldn't read much of the poem from over his shoulder, but I got the impression it was "tres cool, tres hip, tres pc" and didn't much care for the person whose face was on the internet open for all the world to comment on. I hoped he wouldn't notice you could click on the "comments" link and read them. He did. He stayed for two fifteen minute sessions before getting frustrated with the mouse.

Anyway, I might have written that poem and even felt righteous about it. And maybe by posting this blog I am like the poet. I don't know. But it made me think.