Custodian

by J.S. O’Keefe / August 2nd, 2026

The camera is bolted to poured concrete,
a fixed lens trained on the old book.
Nothing disturbs the silence.
A machine murmurs its low buzz.
Numbers pass into a room
where dust is not permitted to settle,
where the air is filtered twice every day.
The hours are collected and stored.
One.
Less than one.
Then no number at all.
The old book is clean now.
Man believes
what is erased no longer exists.
The iron disagrees.
Beneath the rust,
its record remains.
The river does the same,
carrying its truth
beneath a froth of chemical waste.

J.S. O’Keefe’s short stories, essays and poems have been published in Everyday Fiction, WENSUM, Roi Faineant, 101 Words, Spillwords, AntipodeanSF, 50WS, Friday Flash Fiction, etc. Read other articles by J.S., or visit J.S.'s website.

This article was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2026 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.