Salvation Reading

Flipping through
Page after page
Looking for something
To make me hungry.
Quell that yammering concern
Unbite those careless fingernails.
Lift from my shoulders
The onslaught of time
And put salve on
The memory of absence.
But nothing works.
Every page
Every word
Every carefully constructed sentence
Fails to budge me
Fails to remind me
Of a sweeter humanity.
Books cannot save me.