Promptly Poetry

Seeking Shelter

I see her almost every day:
A pale, skinny shadow
Lugging a worn-out backpack
Sitting in a corner of my library
With five devices plugged in,
A tablet in her lap.
By devices I mean earbuds
Two battery packs, a phone too old to use.
I wonder what she's doing,
Why she's here
Hour after hour
Day after day.
Sometimes she wears the same clothes
Several days in a row;
I don't think her hair has been washed
But it's always neatly combed.
The quiet of bookshelves
Must be her only refuge
From a harsh, dangerous world.
Who is she?
Where does she sleep?
What twist of fate dropped this nondescript nerd
Into a ragged, empty life of rationing battery percentages
Until her next library visit?
I pray for her safety
And hope the peace she finds here
Is enough to balance the chaos
Of the struggle I cannot see.

28 lines, 150 words, free verse.
Prompt: “Quiet Chaos.”

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