THE LIBRARY LADY
Quiet! Hissed the library lady
To whisper in here is a sin
There are diligent scholars trying to read
We have rules about silence you'd do well to heed
And they can't read a word
If echoing round can be heard;
The cacophonous drop of a pin
I explained to the library lady
With a friendly, disarming grin
That I'd come to work here, so she'd nothing to fear
But her face filled with fury, she went red round the ears
There was a still, deathly hush
I could just hear, behind us
The cacophonous drop of a pin
Now see here! Said the library lady
When the borrowers dare to come in
You must wear something suitable
Be aloof and inscrutable
Be icily polite, and loftily nice
Tell them only sepulchral quiet will suffice
In our silence profound
There would echoing sound;
The cacophonous drop of a pin
But what if, said I to the fierce library lady
A small child should chance to pop in
And she were to look
And to find a nice book
That had pictures by Quentin Blake in
And if she got spitzwiggled
When she saw them and giggled
Then you’d beg her to stop
And you’d long for the drop
Of a slightly cacophonous pin.
© nigel hallworth 2021