"I want you to stop treating Hurt like an old friend.When he knocks at the door, stop letting him..."

“I want you to stop treating Hurt like an old friend.

When he knocks at the door, stop letting him in.

You deserve better than this. Can’t just

throw rocks at your heart and call it

romantic;

there is more at your fingertips than

hand-grenades and hair-triggers.

There is so much more than this.

I know you love him, but he is

too much weight to carry on your back and

only one of you can make it out of this.

You can fill a body with excuses, but

that doesn’t make it breathe–

can’t Frankenstein’s monster a relationship

out of the things you wished it’d been.

All this aching will make a museum of you.

And you will walk through the empty halls

of your chest, and see all the things

that loved you half to death. And parents

will tour their children through the wreck

to teach them what it means to light

a body like a match.

Trust me when I say

the love isn’t worth the price

of the flint.

But you love him.

So you love him.

What then?”

- TO MYSELF, IN MY LAST RELATIONSHIP by Ashe Vernon (8/30)