I want to live in paper

free verse from the back corner of the bookstore — the poetry section.

First draft of this poem, image created by Rachel B. Baxter

Would you still read me
if you knew what I am about?
How can I, silently, get the word out?
I want to live in paper and pages
on a shelf shared
with The Iliad and Beowulf
and someone I haven’t heard of yet.
These words aren’t temporary —
they are the bricks from which
I’ve constructed my home.