No Other

and so you dust the book that's me right off the shelf called LOVERS You have found the others not to be as enthrallingly intense caressing the gilded pages, you take a moment to admire me through the layer of dust with eager fingers you try to pry my cover I will not let you open me again those lines of love and rhymes of passion encrypted with your name will no longer be available to be read consider this book, archaic Put me back on the shelf for I'd rather gather dust then be poured over by your careless fingers... fingers that have traced other lines eyes that have viewed other plots than mine Leave me alone for my mysteries were beyond your understanding a book not for the novice in love but for the mature the secure read the other volumes more slender than mine less complicated more frivolous entertaining devoid of depth of meaning devoid of passionate climaxes and intricate subplots Come back to me when you hold me as a sacred volume of love and life the only sacred writ to fit your needs then I will open my covers and let you devour the secrets of my essence the mysteries of your universe you will need no other book to live by to learn by to love by except this unabridged volume of poetry that is me. Eileen Manassian Ghali