Shannon K Winston

The End of Archives

Reader, it’s too late.
Agents have already ransacked the library— 

                        torn up microfiche, bashed the card 
                        catalogues, and thrown away the books

I loved. What was it about them 
I loved? I can't remember. 

            And my memory’s only getting worse
            with the rush towards efficiency, technology,

all that’s new. Once I knew every part of a book:
flyleaf, gutter, hinge. Spine: a narrative arc

            and the leather that holds
            a book together. Nothing these days

holds me together. I bend down,
turn over a ripped page, and pick up a broken pencil

            from under the rubble. I clasp it the way
            I might a hand, only tighter.  

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Shannon K Winston is the author of The Worry Dolls (Glass Lyre Press, 2025) and The Girl Who Talked to Paintings (Glass Lyre Press, 2021). Her individual poems have appeared in Cider Press Review, Radar Poetry, RHINO Poetry, SWWIM Every Day, West Trestle Review and elsewhere. Find her here: shannonkwinston.com