Words

My life is full of books
Books
Stacked in shelves
Tucked away in boxes
In piles on the floor
Books
With pressed flowers
Information
And stories
With voices
Spoken in silence.
Stories
Of people who never eixisted
Or who did
Or who will
Stories
Of lives not too different from mine
Or just like mine
Or not at all.
Stories
Of characters who speak
And think and act.
Characters
That speak like me
And think like me
Or act like someone I know,
Characters
Born inside someone's head,
Whose thoughts are written for them
And whose mouth
Has never said a word
Whose actions
Affect nothing but more words,
And conflicts non-existent,
Words upon words,
Words
To fill a page
To tell the unreal
Words
To tell a story,
Words
Upon words
Upon words
Crowded on a page,
Spilling over, over-flowing,
Ever pressed, bound,
Stacks upon stacks
Words upon words
And crowding around me till
I find myself
Surrounded
By books.