It is momentous, in its small way,
as we lose Sunday service
at the New York City libraries
due to budget cuts.

This is not just in the New York City libraries
that are part of the New York City library system
(including Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island)
but also the independent library systems of
Queens and Brooklyn – which also had Sunday service
at some of their branches as well.

This is an absence felt everywhere around the city
where we will not be able to have a place to sit
to ponder
to be for one of the seven days
each week.

Someone said something like
“Nowhere else in our society
is there a place
where nothing is expected of you
without cost,”
though I would think the parks
are similarly excused.

The parks are still there,
I suppose
but we are losing something special now,
on Sundays
and the world is getting colder.