When my finger pushed at the marks

jumbled on a page and stumbled

on the word g i r l, when I found

that every scratch had its own sound

g

i

r

l

I said it in Scottish. girril

That was just the start. Words

made stories that flew out of books.

Buses had routes and I could

read them. Signs spoke to me

as if they had voices. I sent

messages, word came back.

Then the glass blue days began

and lived in my house as if

they would never crack

or break.