Why Do You Read So Much?

There is an emptiness— and a yearning—

in me, so deep, so profound

That nothing but the written word

has ever been able to

(fully)

reach me that far inside

and find what had previously

been left unfound

by all those who had once dared

to venture ever so close to

(dangerously)

that soul of mine—

(but fled scared)

“Why do you read so much?” you ask me

and in turn I ask how

it is that you can feel understood

so completely, so heard—

how anything knows your soul’s truth

(fearlessly)

if it were not that which was created by

quill and ink