Frantic Readers

One difference between the two of you
Is that while one of you reads everything,
Laboring to swallow every last scrap,
The other reads like a treasure hunter
Or a ferociously jealous lover,
Digging only for something worth finding,
Impatiently tossing the rest aside.

Hundreds of years ago, scholars argued
Over broad vs. intensive reading.
Intensiveness advocates were the snobs,
Sneering at shallowness. Deeper learning
Was their grail. But watching the two of you,
It seems both strategies could prove foolish,
Nothing down the hole, nothing in the whole.