books I've read less than I have 040819 ... mon uow i have less than i've read. 050223 ... mon uow but i have the internet. that's a pretty big library. 050223 ... nr you told someone close to us that i'd one day write a novel. i'd never quite planned to, but now i want to because you thought i could and would. 210814 ... nr you were such an avid reader that i asked you for recommendations of books you'd enjoyed lately. you said "Anxious People is a quirky, fun book. I'll think of more." whether you did end up thinking of more to tell me, i'll never know. but i still need to get to that one. 210814 ... tender_square they're all packed, though categorically mixed. (the perfectionist in me shudders.) twenty plus boxes containing billions of words. and at the thrift store today, i bought four more (one novel, one memoir, both already read, and two poetry books i have not). 230303 ... tender_square for many months before our break-up, i stared at those shelves mentally cataloguing what was mine and what was his. now, the last box has been unpacked. there is no fullness in my heart; where are the spaces that have been cleared? the four walls of this muscle collapse like the cardboard pile, ready for the road. i am surrounded by unread volumes of love and loss without and within. i am an imposter beneath sallow skin, prizing what would be easily wrecked with water. rejection, rejection, perfection, perfection, you are the enemy of the good. 230509 ... raze the dust that speckles their hairlines is a constant reminder of how few of them have been read. a legacy of neglect. it wasn't always like this. i used to be stronger. better able to take on the words of others. the books don't complain. but they must get lonely sometimes. 240213 what's it to you? who go blather from