Paperback Heaven

It’s the little things:

          A perfectly halved strawberry

          ripe skin on my tongue, sweeter than kisses

          Paperback wishes

          flimsily tossed into make-believe wishing wells

          to make me dream harder

that weigh more than second-hand dreams 

dictated to me by grown-ups who don’t really think

they know better

but simply want to feel 

good 

about the hell inside their heads. I'd rather be in hell
with my paperback wishes

because if I were in heaven,

I'd stop dreaming of better things