Winner of the
Missouri Center for the Book’s
“Why I Read” Contest

BOOKS

They look innocent enough,
standing there neatly shelved,
passive and polite. You would think
it safe to open a few, peruse,
find something amusing and then
close the matter, and get on
to solid and productive stuff.

For some it is not so simple:
those covers can close on them
like deceptive Venus Flytraps,
the leaves can be adhesive,
the letters can be hooks with barbs,
sentences and notions mazes
difficult to escape, and if
escaped at all, leaving captives
sleepless long past midnight,
too dazed to face the daylight.

Paul Gianoli
Columbia, Missouri