pictures

the jade walls of my living room are lined with books

how to make a corn tortilla
why the dirt of al-qaa is soaked in blood
quite a bit about the anatomy of a whale

you could lose time bending those spines

and there's a short book with a sailboat on the cover
opening it reveals no prose nor retellings of history

no words at all

only faded candids of a young boy
of a family that exists only in print
my stepmother brought it here in july
it's sat on the shelf ever since

i'll have to risk opening it again to figure out where it belongs