Bookmarks

From learning to focus

On the books that awoke us

To stories at bedtime

Through heavy lidded eyes

The 'Listen With Mothers'

And those Ladybird covers

They're the words and the pictures

Of minds open wide

From gingerbread houses

To bears in checked trousers

They're the rabbit-hole fantasies

That paper all our dreams

Then filling our heads full

Of those dark penny-dreadfuls

They're the horrors and hauntings

That keep us from sleep

We hold on to tales and adventures

To the writing that resonates

And leads us to here

We hold on and bookmark the pages

The ones where we find ourselves

So we know this is here

The comings and goings

Of the Beats and the poets

Those dog-eared volumes

Of our wanderlust dreams

As under the covers

The teenager discovers

Read in translation

Those French libertines

We hold on to tales and adventures

To the writings that resonate

And leads us to here

We hold on and bookmark the pages

The ones where we find ourselves

So we know this is here