I am a messy reader.
Food stains
Car stains
Human stains.
Some books have made me cry
Or awkwardly laugh out loud.
Some have left me gasping for air
After a near-drowning in oceans of brilliance.
You can tell the ones I loved the most
By the dog ears.
Marks of love.
I remember my school librarian
Scolding students for bringing back
library books with dog ears:
Marks of negligence.
But these days I look at those creased pages
Of books long read
And feel a little nostalgia,
Thinking back to all the places
I took that book;
Making marks on it,
As it made made marks on me.
heartinscriber 