The Paperback Princess by Erin Hansen
She smelled of books and stories,
Of all the worlds she'd lived within,
As though the ink had left the pages.
To find a new home in her skin,
She didn't quite belong here,
Lived a life within her head,
Like she'd slipped out from the covers,
Of a paperback instead,
And you'd see it in her eyes,
That they were deeper than a well,
She was a whole library of stories,
That we'd beg of her to tell,
When she spoke the world would listen,
To the adventures of her mind,
For if there's such a thing as magic,
Then it was something she could find,
And her heart had looked much further,
Than her eyes had ever seen,
She'd walked on words to places,
Her two feet had never been,
It's years now since she'd moved,
And we all failed to keep in touch,
So her memory's all faded,
Like a book you've read too much,
But if she hoped to leave us ink-stained,
She should know she did succeed,
For even now we all still look for her,
In every book we read. Art by Celeste Berlier
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