I could definitely exist

without a lot of material things,

like a cup of hot coffee in the morning,

or a page-turner novel waiting in my bed

I could strip my days down

to a kind of essential lifestyle

eating, sleeping, working now and then,

alone or socializing a little, it doesn't matter

But I can’t live without deeply feeling

that I’m alive,

from the tips of my hair

to my toes

I watched his handwriting flutter underneath dim candlelight. Dipping a quill in obsidian ink, his thick fingers were marked with years of calluses near the nuckles. The old papyrus he scrawled on looked like his skin, aged with liver spots and bluish veins protruding like branches toward heaven.