Ode

By Jackson DD

When my story gets written

Every thought will be a chapter

A chapter full of run on sentences

And words we do not yet know

And with one blank page for every coherent paragraph

There will be chapters meant to read with a nightlight

Chapters to read on a train or in a cafe

Chapters for you to hide under the desk as the teacher walks by

Chapters to read aloud to your lover as you sit intertwined like puzzle pieces

There will be plotholes and characters you do not like

There will be resolutions that won’t make sense to either of us

And characters will leave with no warning

You will see how I am patchwork of every life I’ve wanted to lead

Will see how the most important parts of me are scraps of personality I got from somewhere else

See how my nose is my mother’s, my hands are my fathers, and my soul is a broken mirror with different reflections

And as you begin to reach the end to find blank pages from a notebook

An ode to you as the reader

The most important character of all