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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
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      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
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  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
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      • Acadia Currah Fall 2022

Adrian Potter

An Incomplete Understanding of Love, With Footnotes


Embarrassing confessions aside, love is a hazardous endeavor.[1] Consider that neighbor whose
personal history is defined by a husband’s absence and memories of his fists. All my life I’ve
seen women sell themselves in one way or another just to survive. Sellers in name only; they
actually pay the price then argue it’s all worth the cost. Love is transitory enough for us to miss
its presence yet motionless enough to mimic our stubbornness.[2] So collect compliments like
trophies; swallow insults and shit them out as gold.[3] It’s a valid coping mechanism, really.
 
A moment, together or apart, can define a relationship forever. Save the sweetest lies for
yourself, tell everyone else the truth. Language without communication is a subtle form of
sabotage. The problem lies not with silence, but the words we force to fill it.[4]
 
Beware of kisses that feign innocence. And the javelins we eventually sink into each other’s
hearts.[5] Do not apologize. Allow tension to linger in the house like the comfortable dust
nobody’s ever willing to clean.
 
Women can pick out the faults in a man like they’re picking out chunks of unwanted tomato
from a salad, and then call it intuition because that sounds better than typecasting. Whatever. I
liken love to a helium balloon untethered, doubt to the open blue sky into which it
optimistically floats. Keep rising and don’t look down. Don’t ever look down.




_______________________________________
[1] You can’t see it until it’s already too late. The hunger for it, gnawing the corners of common sense. Suddenly you’re praising the grace of the unmade bed, all restraint lost in the narrows between mattress and wall.

[2] We want to believe that without love we’d all disappear. But reality is that without love, life goes on. We go on.

[3] Treat a person like a dog and eventually they’ll bite.

[4] Sooner or later a couple has nothing to say so they swallow the needle and thread that stitches them together.

[5] If the past is a rope hanging between us, it can easily become a noose.

About this Poem


This poem cannot bring back the past. This poem cannot make the sun move more quickly or
slowly through the sky, cannot alter time. This poem cannot erase a painful childhood or make
adulthood palatable. This poem will not clean messes, pay rent, keep secrets, or conjure magic.
It won’t find you a friend, not even if you recite it thrice in front of a mirror. It won’t even be my
friend and I wrote the damned thing. This poem won’t change luck, call for a cab, or drum up
bail money. This poem does not pay attention. It is not a good listener. It fails to keep quiet or
give sound advice. This poem will cheat at cards, drink the last beer in the fridge and leave the
toilet seat up. This poem is not domesticated. All night you hear it brooding, craving freedom,
cursing under its breath and begging to be released. Let it go.



--

­­Adrian S. Potter writes poetry and short fiction. He is the author of the fiction chapbook Survival Notes (Červená Barva Press, 2008) and winner of the 2010 Southern Illinois Writers Guild Poetry Contest. Some publication credits include Interrobang?!, Clare, burntdistrict and Kansas City Voices.  Additional propaganda can be found at http://adrianspotter.squarespace.com/

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
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  • Issue 22 Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Art Fall 2021 >
      • Bonnie Severien Fall 2021
      • Camilla Taylor Fall 2021
      • Guilherme Bergamini Fall 2021
      • Emanuela Iorga Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Poetry Fall 2021 >
      • Maureen Alsop Fall 2021
      • Annah Browning Fall 2021
      • Romana Iorga Fall 2021
      • Natalie Hampton Fall 2021
      • Sherine Gilmour Fall 2021
      • Adam Day Fall 2021
      • Amanda Auchter Fall 2021
      • Adam Tavel Fall 2021
      • Sara Moore Fall 2021
      • Karen Rigby Fall 2021
      • Daniel Zhang Fall 2021
      • Erika Lutzner Fall 2021
      • Kindall Fredricks Fall 2021
      • Cin Salach Fall 2021
      • Andrew Zawacki Fall 2021
      • Micah Ruelle Fall 2021
      • Rachel Stempel Fall 2021
      • Haley Wooning Fall 2021
      • Rikki Santer Fall 2021
      • Evy Shen Fall 2021
      • Suzanne Frischkorn Fall 2021
      • Danielle Rose Fall 2021
      • Eric Burgoyne Fall 2021
      • John Cullen Fall 2021
      • Maureen Seaton Fall 2021
      • Hannah Stephens Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Nonfiction Fall 2021 >
      • Kevin Grauke Fall 2021
      • Courtney Justus Fall 2021
      • Amy Nicholson Fall 2021
    • Issue #22 Fiction Fall 2021 >
      • Tina Jenkins Bell Fall 2021
      • David Obuchowski Fall 2021
      • Thomas Misuraca Fall 2021
      • Aiden Baker Fall 2021
      • Jenny Magnus Fall 2021
  • Issue 23 Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Art Spring 2022 >
      • Jonathan Kvassay Spring 2022
      • Karyna McGlynn Spring 2022
      • Andrea Kowch Spring 2022
      • Layla Garcia-Torres Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Poetry Spring 2022 >
      • Robin Gow Spring 2022
      • T.D. Walker Spring 2022
      • Jen Schalliol Huang Spring 2022
      • Yvonne Zipter Spring 2022
      • Carrie McGath Spring 2022
      • Lupita Eyde-Tucker Spring 2022
      • Susan L. Leary Spring 2022
      • Kate Sweeney Spring 2022
      • Rita Mookerjee Spring 2022
      • Erin Carlyle Spring 2022
      • Cori Bratty-Rudd Spring 2022
      • Jen Karetnick Spring 2022
      • Meghan Sterling Spring 2022
      • Lorelei Bacht Spring 2022
      • Michael Passafiume Spring 2022
      • Jeannine Hall Gailey Spring 2022
      • Phil Goldstein Spring 2022
      • Michael Mingo Spring 2022
      • Angie Macri Spring 2022
      • Martha Silano Spring 2022
      • Vismai Rao Spring 2022
      • Anna Laura Reeve Spring 2022
      • Jenny Irish Spring 2022
      • Marek Kulig Spring 2022
      • Jami Macarty Spring 2022
      • Sarah A. Rae Spring 2022
      • Brittney Corrigan Spring 2022
      • Callista Buchen Spring 2022
      • Issam Zineh Spring 2022
      • MICHAEL CHANG Spring 2022
      • henry 7. reneau, jr. Spring 2022
      • Leah Umansky Spring 2022
      • Cody Beck Spring 2022
      • Danyal Kim Spring 2022
      • Rachel DeWoskin Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Fiction Spring 2022 >
      • Melissa Boberg Spring 2022
    • Issue #23 Nonfiction Spring 2022 >
      • Srinaath Perangur Spring 2022
      • Audrey T. Carroll Spring 2022
  • Issue #24 Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Art Fall 2022 >
      • Marsha Solomon Fall 2022
      • Edward Lee Fall 2022
      • Harryette Mullen Fall 2022
      • Jezzelle Kellam Fall 2022
      • Irina Greciuhina Fall 2022
      • Natalie Christensen Fall 2022
      • Mark Yale Harris Fall 2022
      • Amy Nelder Fall 2022
      • Bette Ridgeway Fall 2022
      • Ursula Sokolowska Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Poetry Fall 2022 >
      • William Stobb Fall 2022
      • e Fall 2022
      • Stefanie Kirby Fall 2022
      • Lisa Ampleman Fall 2022
      • Will Cordeiro Fall 2022
      • Jesica Davis Fall 2022
      • Peter O'Donovan Fall 2022
      • Mackenzie Carignan Fall 2022
      • Jason Fraley Fall 2022
      • Barbara Saunier Fall 2022
      • Chad Weeden Fall 2022
      • Nick Rattner Fall 2022
      • Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow Fall 2022
      • Summer J. Hart Fall 2022
      • Daniel Suá​rez Fall 2022
      • Sara Kearns Fall 2022
      • Millicent Borges Accardi Fall 2022
      • Liz Robbins Fall 2022
      • john compton Fall 2022
      • Esther Sadoff Fall 2022
      • Whitney Koo Fall 2022
      • W. J. Lofton Fall 2022
      • Rachel Reynolds Fall 2022
      • Kimberly Ann Priest Fall 2022
      • Annie Przypyszny Fall 2022
      • Konstantin Kulakov Fall 2022
      • Nellie Cox Fall 2022
      • Jennifer Martelli Fall 2022
      • SM Stubbs Fall 2022
      • Joshua Bird Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Fiction Fall 2022 >
      • Otis Fuqua Fall 2022
      • Hannah Harlow Fall 2022
      • Natalia Nebel Fall 2022
      • Kate Maxwell Fall 2022
      • Helena Pantsis Fall 2022
    • Issue #24 Nonfiction Fall 2022 >
      • Courtney Ludwick Fall 2022
      • Anna Oberg Fall 2022
      • Acadia Currah Fall 2022