I sink into a book
The way you fall into a pool
Letting the words wash over me the way the water does

I open my eyes and I enter another world away from sad thoughts and angry parents
Away from popularity contests and perverted boys

I infiltrate this secret life
The life of some unrealistic character
I become them
Walking the path that they should be walking
Wondering if they have to go back
To take my place in that horrible world

I turn the last page
With regret
With expectancy
With hope that maybe, just maybe
I won’t have to leave

But I reemerge from that imaginary world
As if I’m coming up from the bottom of the pool to take a breath
Breaking the surface of the water all at once
And crumble as another world leaves me behind