On Dating Girls Who Read...

"Do it, because a girl who reads understands syntax. Literature has taught her that moments of tenderness come in sporadic but knowable intervals. A girl who reads knows that life is not planar; she knows, and rightly demands, that the ebb comes along with the flow of disappointment. A girl who has read up on her syntax senses the irregular pauses—the hesitation of breath—endemic to a lie. A girl who reads perceives the difference between a parenthetical moment of anger and the entrenched habits of someone whose bitter cynicism will run on, run on well past any point of reason, or purpose, run on far after she has packed a suitcase and said a reluctant goodbye and she has decided that I am an ellipsis and not a period and run on and run on. Syntax that knows the rhythm and cadence of a life well lived."

could the

pit of my stomach stop swallowing everything whole
or at least take a few words with it
like when i say too much
and think too much
and say too much
and i think most people
would prefer the quieter type
but i tried being agreeable before
(too, too agreeable)
and i am tired of hiding my fire
with past-ashes and sunbeams
bring on the night,
bring on my thirst for adventure
and someone who will run with me,
hand in hand,
fearless.