if your parents yell a lot
mostly at each other
and have you thinking:
why not just break up
because that's how sick
you are of their banter

if your parents are the parents who
have you thinking:
good thing, i'm their kid
if they were another kid's parents,
that kid would've probably
grown up to be a major ***** up.
with how laid back your parents are
but then you must remember
how much of a ***** up you are too
so stop thinking

if your parents still love each other
if they still tease each other
and laugh together
and put up with each other's antics
and prepare coffee while the other
is still fast asleep
but never complains
when they wake up to cold coffee

if your parents kid around a lot
and bully you together sometimes
but also care for you
because though they won't admit it
they love you more than they love
each other,

if your parents always threaten to leave but never really do
then you know they're a keeper
and that they always will be

if you don't understand your parents'
love for each other, know that
that's just how it's supposed to be

if your parents are anything like mine,
i hope you haven't gone mad just yet
know that they're the best thing
that will ever happen to you

and

that you'll most likely
end up finding them
in the person you'd
want to marry.

.     what was the first line you let him
                              cross?
                  what was the last?
         when exactly did you decide  
            to lose yourself to him?
     when did you start to lose respect  
                       for yourself?
         when did it finally come back?
                            has it?
           why do you still miss him
        when you have someone new,    
                     someone kind    

       why was he the first person you    
                       wanted to call
            when your grandmother
           was sent  to the hospital?
         why is every ******* thing
                          you write
                centered around him?
             when did you become so    
             disgustingly emotional?
                        shake it off
                          grow up.

i let the sidewalk catch
my daydreams as I practice
the motions of love, imagining how
long it should take for you
to fall into my arms, confecting my sweet
words into perfection, testing
the way we cannot fight
the current in our oceans,
imagining life that started
with a kiss—smirks becoming
adventures, worries flattening
into horizons, the contrast in our skin
tones creating a balanced ink, our
oneness a calligraphy that
cannot be rewritten.

I've tried understanding you
Though you always complicate things
You asked me to hold on
But it is best to let us go

I am always the one to blame
For everything that went wrong
It is like you were floating
While I was falling

You'd never sang me a love song
When I have written a hundred poems about you
I know you're lying when you said you still love me
Still believed in you anyway

Where's the good in goodbye?
Found it when I finally said,
Goodbye tears
Goodbye love that hurts
*Goodbye us

I once ended up
in the middle of Arizona
with nothing but a single cigarette
and a couple mints.
No phone, no money,
not even any shoes.
This one guy on a motorcycle
pulled over to the side of the road
where I stood, lost,
gave me a funny look
and then took off again.
I don't remember how I got there,
but the next morning I woke up in Phoenix
outside a gas station with
50 dollars in my pocket and a slip
of paper that read:
"keep it up, honey" on one side,
and a phone number on the other.
I never called.
I never even wondered
who had written it.

You see,
i am not a singer.
I am a sinner.
I have no future
like a lady,
and my past is dodgy and shady,
at best.
Yet, you can rest.
Even though I am a liar,
i am not a murderer,
nor a thief.
Yes you will never know
where you stand with me,
but i could tell you.
But you never wanted that,
did you?
You hoped for a weekend with the slutty girl,
a week at most.
You never wanted to hold me at my worst,
only to admire me at my best.
Well, i pity you,
I pity you because you could not see the beauty
that my chaos is.

let's play 21 questions
your questions will go from
how old are you
to
are you still a ******
my questions will go from
what's your favorite color
to
what's the worst thing you've done

both wanting to already know
if what's barely beginning
to happen yet
will be worth it