An Observation on Books (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo

[Author’s Note: My creative writing professor had a great deal of wisdom to share throughout his classes.]

“Do you realize that books

    are a form of technology

      in use for such a long time                  

       we now see them as natural?”

   my professor said aloud one day

     amid a writing workshop

           as if out of nowhere

He had a faraway look on his face

            but a sly smile on his lips

“We can open them like a program

       and we flip through the pages

           to access their information

             but they are still artificial

               organized by humanity

Books are technology

        that we have ceased

            to consider technology.”

Those words hung in the air

      like a question posed

        to the very cosmos itself

Every student in the room

     fell into silence

       as if rattled by the realization

            of an idea we had never

                 even considered before

Then my professor smiled and said

     “So          who wants

         to read their work first?”

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