i tried to stay away —
turned the haiku they wrote us the other way
rationed myself to scraps of non-fiction
hid the books i craved under the blanket
you quietly folded the morning after
we threw it into disarray
but today
confronted by the blank space
of a whole day ahead of me
i finally cracked and found myself
in not one
not two
but three bookstores
no matter how i far i run
my feet always lead me back to words
despite the danger of drowning
in a whirlpool of sentiment
my soul cannot help but gravitate
towards the stories of other losses