A Lifetime Of Stories

(Note: this is supposed to be a piece of spoken poetry. The final product will be posted here as soon as it's finished.)

I’ve found that im not a gentle person

i dont handle people, animals, electronics gently

its just not who i am

im forceful with everything i do, its in my nature

theres one exception to this, that people might think a bit strange

maybe

do you?

it doesnt matter

books

every page is a gentle flip of the wrist

the breeze working with me to carry the words along

literally, unfolding a story right in front of my eyes

monsters

adversaries

love

failure

triumph

and everything in between

i live for it

i breathe it

through my fingers

as every page is flipped

chapter one

chapter twenty

they fly by

the better the story, the faster they fly

i dont think i could describe in words

how much a book can mean to someone

maybe they read a certain chapter

at a sad part of their life

and now

they cant even look at the page

the spots where the tears fell

still outlined where the liquid spread through the fibers of the paper

or maybe they had their first kiss

and they read and they read

faster than their fingers could fly

flipping each page

as our heroine finally defeats her adversary

i dont think i could put into words

the amount of courage it takes

to look back at a book

and think

‘wow,

look how far ive come from here’

books are memories

i cant be gentle with anything but books

because they mean so much to me

and others

so

if you want me to treat you as gently as a book

turning each page

each precious memory

brush my hand along your cheek

as i would drag my thumb and forefinger along the edge of the page

then give me a story

give me a lifetime of them.