Compendium

We walked among shelves of organisms
petting all their spines and fingering the leaves.
I taught her how to smell them best. You have to find the place that hasn't been touched yet because only then is it fresh and also old.
Some of them gasped, some of them whispered.
We sat there curious at first, and especially at the end.
She doesn't know this yet, but that day changed us both.

A bookworm. I didn't think they were real.