After so much time,

I finally made up my mind

and I stopped being such a germophobe and thrifted a book.

As I was reading it,

and my fingers were carefully holding the yellowed pages I couldn't help but wonder,

did it's former owner read it as feverishly as me,

running through the pages like a marathon,

both in awe at the prose and terrified because the words are so cutthroat and linger still

although we're far from rurar Victorian era England.