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Tear Stained Stationary

You are a novel filled with beauty and wonder. Some people will never see your true value.

By J PoetryPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Like an abandoned book

You started with the opening chapter

Silly collection of words

Incomprehensible yet familiar

Felt a spark, took it everywhere after

Signed your name inside the front cover

Gave it the time of day

Combing over every detail, page to page

But chapter three was too much

It threatened to change your philosophy

It was unknown, uncertain, and risky

Showing you more of yourself than you wanted to see

Everyone knows you as something different

Seeing you so invested in a book would ruin you

You know they think you’re shallow

Picking up every book, knowing its title and outline

How could you dare read a book beyond the first page?

But you did.

You hid in the closet

Shielding the book from public eye

You masked your use of precious time

With little white lies

Clearing your schedule

You made it routine to read a page a night

The pages began to wear down and soften

The ink fading as you traced each letter

Eyes following a carefully trained hand

With emotions poured into each page

You knew no other book would speak to you the same

So you left, day-to-day, cracking open other novels

Engraving your favorite quotes before they went away

The book gave you a challenge

One you weren’t willing to take

You threw it in the ashes

Just having gotten to the hardest part

Pages wrinkled with the tears of another

Words blurred unrecognizably

You glimpsed your past

Stopping dead in your tracks

The words spoke to you, too relatable to keep close

You thought, books are the thoughts of others

They shouldn’t touch your soul

They are simply cold pages to turn

Boxes to check off

Lines to practice my trained eye

You wanted to skip ahead

But it sensed your lack of patience

Finally refusing to let you turn unread pages

You pride hurt, your ego crushed, your excitement hushed

You slammed the door

Book strewn on the table

Your favorite pages ripped out

There the book lies

Pages that no one will get to see

Because one selfish person

Couldn’t just let the book go in peace

Pages don’t heal

They stay ripped and torn

A testament to the rough hands

In which they were borne

And yet still, you come back

Rushing to tear out pages you forgot

Leaving a book that would have been

Better left un-bought

Your fear kept you afar

You gazed at a lone, flickering star

Wondering why this had to be?

Well at least it wasn’t as heartbreaking for you

As it was for me.

What if I told you?

Would you still have the audacity

Words sound good on paper, eloquent and strong

But they become thorns when you realize you were wrong

I can’t move on when you play with each emotion so readily

You were my gain

Now my pain

Now I’m just a stack of pages left in the rain

You took pieces of me

Leaving me gasping for air

Lost from the gaping hole you left

Searching for the happiness I didn’t know wasn’t there

But still, you walk, un-phased, unharmed

Through libraries of barely-opened books

Skimming a page here and there

Memorizing titles like equations

If you don’t love one let them go

Don’t let them stay and leave them alone

Books are meant to be read and remembered

Not slammed, forgotten, and dismembered

love poems
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About the Creator

J Poetry

Find strength in weakness.

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