We call it...Swank Swagger

nine reasons why you should never love a poet:

one.
we like to hear things like ‘you’re beautiful’ and 
‘i’d die without you’ but deep inside we always know 
you don’t mean it. 
and it just tears us apart slowly, no matter how much 
we love those poisonous lies. 

two.
and when you ask ‘are you okay?’, we’re going to 
answer with ‘i’m fine’. and you’ll hear that 
even if our bones are shattering inside of us and 
our hands are trembling from all the hurt that we go through. 

three.
because we play our music too-loud-to-bear so that, 
when we’re all alone, 
it chases away the thoughts that come with the silence: 
things that haunt our nightmares and reasons why 
we don’t like to be alive.

four.
we leave too many s p a c e s between our letters because 
that’s how we feel. all a.l.o.n.e. 
and maybe you’ll change that for a little while, but 
in the end, it’s all the same. 

five.
and we can connect with books and movies and music better than 
we can with people 
so excuse us if we cry in the theater, but not when you walk away. 
sometimes, we get paralyzed from the brain down, but 
believe me, we’d cry and beg and ask you to stay if we think 
it would change anything. it won’t though. 
it’s happened before. 

six.
because we will wish upon stars and eyelashes. and 
we will wait for 11:11 and when we cross the imaginary line 
they call the equator, we will wish for something. 
we will not tell you what, because it won’t come true. 
and we won’t care if you laugh or plead, 
we’re not going to tell you. 

seven.
we love the ocean and the mountains and the forests because 
they’re wild and free and we can forget our names, our lives there. 
and because there, we can believe we have wings, or we can dive 
down, 
down, 
down 
into the deep, dark waters and never come back.  

eight.
and we are us, ourselves. not because 
we chose to be, 
but because we don’t know who or what else we could be. 

nine.
we will mix up our forevers with nevers and 
always with i-wish-but-i’m-not-good-enough-for-
you,-for-anyone. 
and you will hate it, even though at first you will ignore it.

.
because you might be able to give us love, but 
all we will give you is something that doesn’t make sense.

and i want to tell you that there are 
too-many-reasons-why-you-shouldn’t-love-a-poet, 
but i want you to love me so 
i will not tell you them…..