Hooked

It’s the kind of thing that leaves you breathless, gasping for air, wanting more.

You can feel it deep, deep down in your gut. Hits you.

Why? How? It’s just words, crafted together, deliberately, slowly, meant to arouse emotion.

And it works.

You can taste each one, a sweet and lingering flavor, sliding around in your mouth. Heart racing, sweaty palms — you’re hooked, you can’t peel yourself away.

Reading quickly, racing from one sentence to the next to see what lies ahead. Then again. This time with reserve, concentration. Letting it sink in, settle.

Later, your mind tumbles over the words, the memory like a tattoo, You savor it, blocking yourself from reviewing, until that moment when you are alone, when you can silently repeat it.

But you don’t linger too long, afraid of tarnishing the memory, wasting it into a worn out song that keeps on playing, wanting to keep it locked inside with the same power forever.