Burning Bookshelves

I am a little puzzled
by this obsession
with distractions.
I pin-point
escapist literature
for this.

Unknowingly
the human spirit
- in most cases -
seems to want
to avoid
its own sicknesses
by any means.

It takes itself away
to other plains
in to fairy tails
where it can only learn of
alliteration, fantasy and softness.

Clean and easy writing
that exposes nothing:
A safety net
for the budding intellectual.

Here I sit
staring at my bookshelf
wondering what the difference is.
Why are the late twenties
and further delving
into Rowling and Gaiman
when there is Celin,
Dostoevsky and Fante?

Beautiful, honest words
dressed in nothing but skill
and the writer's need
to write.