I asked for a library book
Before. In the before times.
It’s here now, in my bag
For curbside pickup: ready
To tell me what I thought
I would want to know.
Before I checked the graphs
Every day, before I watched
The numbers climb. Before.
A fossil of past intent,
A message in a bottle
Sent from self to self
A little paper wormhole
Into the year that wasn’t.