324.

i think bookstores are a great escape,
barnes & noble, especially. i imagine
that it will be easy to lose myself in
the great sea of words and books.

when i go, i am going only to get away
from you. i wear my hair up simply
because you liked it better down.
i dress in the all the colors you hated.

i am a child, i suppose.

running my fingers over the spines of
books, inhaling new ink and stiff
paper, opening and closing books as
i go never turns out to be quite the

distraction i was hoping for.
you were always distracting.
you made me trip.

i sit on the floor in the poetry aisle.
i don’t mind that employees and
customers walk by, eyeing the small
wake of books strewn beside me.

i like making a scene, commanding
the stage rather than smiling from
the wings. for a change, you know.

i read words that are too beautiful
to understand. i think, first, that i
could never be like that, before realizing,
painfully, angrily that you always

were.