THE BOOKS AT OUR HOUSE

take up many shelves
in many rooms
and most of them have been read
or at least dipped into.

Some, though, stand
there waiting patiently
to be taken in hand
like unchosen girls
at the high school dance
hoping for a chance
to change my life.

Other are accusatory.
When I look their way
I hear them hiss
that I have no right not
to let them have their say,
that to keep them in this
unread state is tantamount
to crimes against humanity,
a form of felonious insanity.

Here’s one: Facts from Figures
by M.J. Moroney, a book
about statistics, four hundred
pages of formulas and graphs
(not the kind of thing
you read for laughs)
published in 1951 and
dedicated to his wife.
One can only hope she
had a sense of humor.
Sample chapter: "Association
Contingency, and Goodness
of Fit -- the X2 Distribution."

Not today.
Maybe later.