Encyclopedia

A place of honor in every home,

The letters of your name stamped in gold,

For our children we make this investment,

A wise and valued guest, a friend of old.

Waiting in the lamplight in the living room,

In the bookcase by the kitchen door;

And now you are forgotten in the data stream.

They give you away at the Goodwill store.

Encyclopedia thunders 'cross the prairie,

Encyclopedia blackens the plains,

Encyclopedia from ocean to ocean,

Encyclopedia now nothing remains.

And I remember well the pride and the wonder

Opening the heavy box top lids,

To the realm of the dinosaurs and the railroads,

Friendship 7 and Captain Kidd.

Did you find refuge in the library,

Sanctuary in the school bookshelf,

A dusty box in the widow's basement,

Let me brush away the world wide web.

Encyclopedia...

And I'm grateful that I knew you in my childhood,

With your Bunker Hill and your pagan Rome,

My best to Madame Curie and Geronimo,

You always will be welcome in my home.

Sailing down the Mississippi River,

See the satellites tumbling up above;

An Egyptian barque across the mystic waters,

Take me to the world that I love.

Encyclopedia....