crack it open
there are worlds within pages
adventures and mysteries
and the essence of life
contained in history, science, story
teaching, widening memory,
affirming identity, all gathered
in a single spine
in a small collection of paper
so when a day has given
all it can give and there is nothing
left to do or see or glean or learn or try,
there is still
the book.
This is an excerpt from Textbook of an Ordinary Life, Rachel’s fourth poetry book.
(Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash)
