nine reasons why you should

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.