NOVEL Idea

I couldn't put it down for months

it walked around in my head...

the book, its characters

the little girl, especially

and I keep waiting on them to finish

the story... but they tell me

in my dreams that they are waiting

on me to be ready for the truth

the uncle's stern look is a ruse

I know; he loves hard and long

and has been hurt, but he

too knows I'm not ready for a

story too close to my own

borders, and he waits

stares me down, looks at

the journal next to my bed

and waits and stares

and I look away

the woman who hears the Voice

has already told me who she

is and what she sees and how

she knows that I know because

she tells me, it's a little bit of

me, which is why the story is

still in my head, bumping around

in my heart instead of in the chapter

that keeps knocking up against

the "real" deadlines

the novel and its characters

don't care about my real work

in fact, they say, tell our story

and the rest of that inane

innocuous work will follow--

besides this fiction is the

closest thing to Truth that

most people will ever know

and looking away won't make it go away

and not writing won't either, but it will

burn your eyes when you're reading

one more professional book about some

obscure section of some obscure chapter

of an ancient story that if you listen

is a little like the novel idea 

© Valerie Bridgeman

March 2, 2013