Look it up in an Encyclopedia

I just realized my teenager would never know

What an encyclopedia meant to us, in those days you could not throw

A question at Google or ChatGPT on a device and instant answers obtain

To search for answers required going through some pain..

Each school project invariably meant

That inside a library hours would be spent

Thick volumes of encyclopedias we would comb through

To get the needed information, that was the only way we knew

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All information was collected over a period of time and organized

At the snail’s pace of the process, my son would be surprised 

These days information is instantly available

Without ever needing to get up from the table

There was a thrill of discovery when you found

What you were looking for in a volume, thick and hard-bound

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These days I don’t even know where physical encyclopedias reside

All the information that we need the internet can provide

There is no index to thumb through to find the right page

Sometimes I wish I could travel back to that age