To Open Your Heart

     A book must be the axe 

     for the frozen sea inside us.

     —Frank Kafka

the author creates a world, 

peoples it, writes in conflicts,

sets up scenerios, clothes them— 

this fictive character who only 

exists on paper permits you

to grieve, to finger loss, to cry,

to ask forgiveness for what

you discover between the 

covers of a book