Book Fourteen

Upstairs on the curtained shelves behind the bed

lie piles of Hilroy notes,

            rows of text books,

                        an eclectic group of story book worlds,

            and mum and dad’s investment in our future,

a fifteen volume encyclopaedia.

The maroon spines embossed with numbers impress,

sitting in careful order on the shelf.

Book fourteen,

filled with fairy tales,

            nursery rhymes,

                        riddles,

                                    directions ‘how to build’ things,

has lost its covers and number.