You perch on card catalog oak tonight
Tyto alba feathers catch basement light
Acid-free boxes breathe slow cellulose rhythm
Your heart beats quarter notes in lignin prism
You digest the archive whole tonight
Pellet wisdom vole bone paper light
Roots drink deep where the microfilm sleeps
Tyto alba the basement keeps
Microfiche reels spin slow as root growth
Your nictitating membrane blinks at both
Humidity swells the vellum page edges
You track the beetle larva in the ledges
Dehumidifier hums a low tonic drone
You swallow shrew skull mandible and bone
Silica gel packets crackle dry chorus
Your flight feathers brush the thesaurus
You digest the archive whole tonight
Pellet wisdom vole bone paper light
Roots drink deep where the microfilm sleeps
Tyto alba the basement keeps
No xylem here no phloem transport streams
Just cellulose decay and mouse bone dreams
But you convert the dark to nitrogen
A living index where the stacks begin
Morning light cuts through the high transom glass
You blink slow third eyelid as hours pass
The catalog breathes easier now you're here
Tyto alba grounded atmospheric sphere
You digest the archive whole tonight
Pellet wisdom vole bone paper light
Roots drink deep where the microfilm sleeps
Tyto alba the basement keeps
Tyto alba the basement keeps
Feathers settle on the classification shelf
Basement breathes a little deeper now
