Anything Else

The desk is a kiosk now.

Green button, red button,

a screen that asks if you need anything else

before you've asked for anything.

I had a question written down—

interlibrary loan, a title I'd been after

for six months. The kind of question

that takes a person, a back-and-forth,

someone who says let me see what I can find.

The screen doesn't say that.

It waits. It blinks. It asks again:

anything else?

I scanned my card.

The book dropped into the return slot.

The question is still in my notes app,

exactly where I put it.

I keep forgetting there used to be someone to ask.