"                        "
      !            :                  ,                .
              ,            ,            ,                .
      ,              ;                              !
                    ,

1.
Let's install some fail-safes
You have to convince yourself that this is really what you want
If you aren't gay, pretend you are
If you are gay, pretend you're not
I guarantee you will not fall in love

2.
Pick the sweetest person
Someone your parents will approve of
Someone who is so perfect for you that you just don't understand why you're sitting alone right now
If you're not voted cutest couple for the yearbook, you can't possibly be in love, right?
Too many people are watching

3.
Try to love them
Try to give yourself a textbook relationship
Go on dinner dates
And watch scary movies so you can cuddle up together
Argue about why you should definitely pay "because it's romantic"
Blow out the candle when she's not looking

4.
Stop taking off work on Friday nights
It was never going to work, anyway, so why bother getting attached?
When you realize that they love you,
And you are still sitting there alone, that's when your heart breaks
When you realize you can walk away and be unchanged
Because how could you possibly walk away from two entire years with another human being and not feel something
Your heart's going to break anyway, just because it didn't.

I have not heard the siren's song
in quite some time.

In its absence I
have taken up knitting; socks and hats, scarves
of dubious color and shape.
I would give you one, if you knocked on my door.
I'd open with mock surprise,
and, snow covering your messy hair,
you'd smile at me, open that sweet mouth
and say –

But, as I said:
I have not heard the siren’s song
in quite some time.

Growing a crush
Involves squishing, crunching
The heart
To hold back giant feelings

Falling in love
Is crashing face first into the pavement
Off the cliff of a mountain
Hoping someone catches the fall

Fear the great glutton

Eating through the mind and flesh

Innermost marrow

If you choose to fall in love,
fall in love with a writer.
But know you will live in the pages
of a poem, linger in the words
of a song, be engraved
in the ink of a plot,
twisting your fate and heart
into a tempestuous knot.
If you choose to fall in love,
fall in love with a writer.
Who will hand you
the world, drawn and painted
in the metaphors of a troubled mind
where nothing is simple, not even a line.
If you choose to fall in love,
fall in love with a writer-
your life will never be the same.
They'll weave stories of yesterday,
in the webs if your hair,
breathe the sky of morning,
and lure you to their lair.
So if you choose to fall in love,
fall in love with a writer.
One who truer will never be;
fall in love with a writer....
with a writer like me.

Roses are red,
violence in bloom;
thoughts, prayers, and guns
for every classroom.