Hardly Spineless

Books

whose worn pages have been turned from cover to cover

remain as old friends

hanging around in your mind and on your shelf

lingering in your home and in

your humanity

making you look good, even after their story has long ago unfolded.

In the easy silence that follows,

they know,

and

you do too,

what has transpired between the two of you

and what you have shared and where you have been together

and what happened there

and when,

and how it changed you

from that point on.

Tucked into nooks and crannies,

proliferating on tables and trays,

their colors

and upright

sentinel

wordy spines

call out to the curious

and ignite the memory

of we who once chose

to dive into

those papery leaves.

Adventurous yet inert

expansive but compact

persistent or occasional

fragile and robust

disposable but indespensible.

Lifegiving

is a life living

with books.