One day I found an open book,

Aged and torn.

So beautiful were its pages,

So touching was the story it told.

My heart was drawn by the words I read,

Warm and strong.

Words of sorrow, but still of hope

Words of kindness, filled with love.

So, I placed my heart inside the book

To keep it safe for all my days.

Like a rose pressed between the pages

Preserved for all eternity.

One day I found an open book,

Aged and torn.

So beautiful were its pages,

So touching was the story it told.

But pages were missing, hidden from sight

Page one, page two, page three

Gone were pages four through twenty-six.

An entire chapter left unseen.

Where could they be these missing pages

Hidden from my view?

Torn out by hands ashamed.

Torn out by you.

I cried to the author please

But he turned a deaf ear to me

Please tell me the rest.  I simply must know.

But the chapter remained unseen.

The story is incomplete, and my heart,

Like a screaming balloon,

Breathes its last breath and withers away.

It is gone for eternity.