I want you to open me
like a newly-bought book,
carefully, respectfully
without cracking my spine
like so many people do.

I want you to smell the ink,
my freshly-printed paper.

I want you to touch me,
run your hands over me,
trace my cover design
and feel my words.
I want you to fall asleep with
my phrases on your chest.

I want you to see me,
my colors, my font.

But above all,
I want you to read me,
devour me with your eyes
get to know me better than
anything in this world.

I want you to be transported
to my world,
to want to live in it forever,
to make my story your own.

I want to be a favorite
bedtime story for your sons,
your daughters and maybe
even for myself.

And I want you to love me
so much that you wear me out.

I’ll have dog-eared pages
to remember moments we lived,
I’ll have coffee stains,
I’ll lose pages,
l but you will know
my story anyway.