Becoming a Book

Howard Schwartz

"When writers die they become books, which is, after all,

not too bad an incarnation（化身，典型）."

-- Jorge Luis Borges

for Ben Furnish

All these years,

without knowing it,

I've been preparing for my rebirth

as a book.

Each day

I try to condense（浓缩，凝结）

light and darkness

into one more page.

At night

I count the pages left

before it's time

to come back.

Now that my destiny is known,

we need not say goodbye.

I'll be there guarding you

from a shelf.