One Tang Dynasty Poet

One Tang Dynasty Poet

All morning in between the bookshelves
I ran my finger down page after page
While the sunlight wove between the stacks
I was looking for a poem—I could not remember the name
My teacher wrote it down for me, but in script
He thought I would learn how to read the characters
Among the translations, I read every poem
I read the short ones to the end
Skim the long ones
A whole world in snapshots and choruses
Would I even know?—if I had found what I was looking for