#1

I rip up my books
After I’m done reading them.
The notion I hate,
Of others reading where I
Have read, leads me to destroy.

That something we shared,
That something I left behind
Creates that notion.
And I cannot abide it,
I just cannot allow it.

This feeling I’ll work
Through; I know this is not right;
It soils my soul.
Yet there’s nothing I can do,
I rip books to keep them mine.