Defenceless they stood against the HAPPENING
which threatened to envelop them
and followed them even into this tomb
where they came in search of shelter,
they the Broken Girls of the Book room.
Here they came to escape the HAPPENING
which became so big and monstrous
that they never could risk the outside
in fear its smell might be discovered on them,
they the Broken Girls of the Book room.
The HAPPENING never did quite come,
nor did the HAPPENING ever quite leave.
It simply stayed there in the background,
never present, never absent,
unspoken, yet acknowledged
with them, the Broken Girls of the Book room.
