Bookworms | Teen Ink

Bookworms MAG

By Madeleine Barnes BRONZE, Wexford, Pennsylvania
Madeleine Barnes BRONZE, Wexford, Pennsylvania
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Boy walks, nose-deep into small print
of a yellow book, zig-zags down treacherous
levels of stairs as if only his feet
sense his whereabouts and ankle-up
the kudzu, the other worlds enchanted

anchor him. He reads as if studying
atom splits, enamored with their
sleepwalking between two beings
while classmates dart in and out of lunch lines,
pounding on vending machines. His thumb

makes an even cut into a chapter,
folding over the neatly typed tale, bells sounding
in their wary come-back-boomerang whistle
and a fissure halves his eardrum, his eyelashes
fall apart to the fluorescent quilted ceiling flickering

chalk-like shadows sprawled out on the cafeteria floor
and things like chocolate milk seem filtered from
dream-Bible text and although he is grateful
to be where he is, although he is grateful to touch
on the familiar, he cannot fathom

his own reactions to the real-life stories
where plots confuse at the hand of his author and
resolution never comes. So impatiently he drags a chair
out from beneath a plastic table, picks up where
he left off, remembers his place.



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This article has 91 comments.


The Violist said...
on Feb. 13 2009 at 8:01 pm
This was somewhat offensive, because I am a huge bookworm, but this is what happens to us and it makes so much sense

I <3 Writing said...
on Feb. 1 2009 at 2:31 pm
I'm a HUGE Bookworm, but I don't find this offensive, like other people said. I actually liked it. Because I do just that.

And proud of it!

on Feb. 1 2009 at 7:23 am
I am a book worm and I still like this poem.

kthall said...
on Jan. 25 2009 at 12:55 am
nice work, great imagery

sllison said...
on Jan. 25 2009 at 12:06 am
yea im a book worm ttoo and thaT HURTS ME and where im from thats jjust hurts me ok down south that is such a great thing to be a book worm

millicent said...
on Jan. 15 2009 at 2:39 pm
well then i am a book worm so this is so mean to me

whatever said...
on Jan. 14 2009 at 7:56 pm
wow that is such a great poem!

parkcityski said...
on Jan. 4 2009 at 3:43 am
Wow. this was amazing. I can totally relate to this. I do stuff like this all the time, but I crash into people. And walls. Not very graceful. You had great imagery. I could totally see what was happening.

on Dec. 15 2008 at 7:23 pm
one of the best poems on here

writerDYWC93 said...
on Dec. 13 2008 at 12:05 am
this was a great piece of writing.

i loved how it told a story within a poem.

i could see this happening in my mind.

it has the reader thinking but also tells the story clearly.

keep up the good work!

on Dec. 4 2008 at 2:32 pm
Wow. I really enjoyed this piece.



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