You won’t find Love on Colfax Avenue south

especially not in that blue house

whose deceiving front door opens not

into an entryway

but into a whirlwind of Emotions.

Everything from the grand piano

to the bathroom with the cliche wall hanging that reads

‘LOVE’

 

Before you walk into this house,

I advise you to seal your heart up tight.

Do not look at the stack of records

or the blanket that used to warm you.

Learn to keep yourself warm, instead.

 

If he invites you to stay a while: don’t

he doesn’t mean it, anyways.

In fact, don’t even remove your shoes

your barefeet might glue themselves to the floor

and you don’t want that, now do you?

 

You won’t find Love on Colfax Avenue south

not from the beautiful boy

in that blue house

whom who have loved relentlessly

for years.

 

His eyes will medicate you with their sea-glass elixir.

Flowers will erupt from his mouth:

do not pick them, for they are

poisonous.

Instead, plant your own flowers

and nurture them with the care he never had for you.

 

His hands will turn you to stone,

but only after they have melted you down into nothing.

It’s okay to cry on your bathroom floor.

It is not okay to call the boy crying,

relying on the fix that his voice gives you.

 

You are not The One.

And that,

as sharp as it feels,

is a very good thing

For you are worth more than all the expensive houses on Colfax Avenue combined.