[One of the winning entries in a mini contest organised by THE-POETS-CLUB as a part of TPC Annual Awards 2020 :)
Topic: Your experiences in a world without books.]
In a world without books,
I lose my escape routes.
I can't read books,
So I turn to people.
People roam the expanses of the earth,
Fully clothed and faces armed,
With words scrawled aimlessly on hearts and hands,
Each word patient, each word naked.
It's easier to read the open books,
With telltale metaphors and zero mixed signals.
But I've always been one for plot twists,
Paying more attention to paragraph breaks than the paragraphs.
Others are a little more stubborn,
With obstinate spines and steely resolves.
So I have to force apart the jammed sides,
To know their story.
With no records of the past,
Bygones are left bygones.
A whole new world,
And a spotlessly clean slate.
Fading in and fading out,
The world never runs out of reasons,
For one to escape.
But without books,
Reality slams down on my study table,
Leaving me with no choice but to read it.
It is all in pencil,
Threatening to turn to ink any moment.
I start off with my writing tools,
Immersed in an attempt to change this world,
For the better.