Poem: The Nineteenth-Century Novel II

I am the heroine
in a novel, and there are twenty pages left.
Someone is reading the novel, holding
the numbered pages in their hands, almost finished.
Every night, in bed, they read my story
with the novel propped on their chest.
I want them to read quickly, but they read
a page a night, without
urgency, as if there is no rush
before turning off the light.

From “Morning Prayer” (Sheep Meadow Press, 2005)

Eve Grubin teaches at New York University London and is poet-in-residence at the London School of Jewish Studies.