The End
Laura Purdie Salas
Poem originally appeared in BookSpeak! Poems About Books. Published with permission from the author.
You race
toward me
checking page numbers
and calculating their distance.
You
sprint skip skim
to win
the reader's race
to cross me—
the book's finish line.
But then
you
smile, cry, sigh,
flip to chapter one
and start again.
I am not so much
The End
as I am an
invitation back
to the beginning.
Laura Purdie Salas is passionate about poetry and nonfiction. She is the author of many books for kids, including Bookspeak! Poems About Books, A Leaf Can Be..., Water Can Be..., and more than 100 others. Her books' honors include NCTE Notables, Bank Street Best Books, IRA Teachers' Choice, Riverby Award, Charlotte Zolotow Highly Commended, starred reviews, and more. You can visit with Laura at www.laurasalas.com.