~melt Me Into The Picture~ Poem by Mary Nagy

I always wondered
where my love of books came from
it certainly wasn't from
all the tender moments
on my parents laps
listening to beautiful fairy tales.

I've always been uncontrollably
attracted to books
with pictures of people...
any people... doing anything.
As I was thumbing through
a coffee table book
admiring the beautiful pictures
of people in far-off lands
I remembered...

As a young girl I would
escape through books.
Even before I could read
I would find old, abandoned schoolbooks
in the bottom of our toybox
from the many schools we started to attend
and then moved again
too quickly to turn the books back in.
Those books had
such wonderful pictures
especially the Social Studies books
They would show people and lands
that I dreamed of changing places with.

I still remember a picture of a man
carrying his small child on his shoulders
while the mom walked along beside them.
That little boy looked so happy
like he didn't have a worry in the world.
I guess he probably didn't.
If I would've been able to
climb through the pages and
melt myself into that picture
I would've done it.

I still catch myself looking
at my kid's schoolbooks
and noticing all the wonderful pictures.
My kids just flip through the pages
without even noticing the people in the pictures.
Somehow that comforts me.