Love Ain't a Rollercoaster

By Alex Pasquale

Published in the 2023 journal.

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For all you wondering,

Love ain’t a rollercoaster.

Or least it ain’t ‘sposed to be.

[My stomach jumps to my throat when we descend.]

Neither of y’all got a halo

Round your heads,

So keep working to make it work.

[My eyes squeeze shut, grabbing on to anything that I can.]

Love’s more like a

Cart. Two people pushing

Is a lot easier, know what I mean?

[I don’t hear the tracks beneath me. Have we derailed?]

We plunge further and further into what was never meant to be.

Can we swim back up at all? Should we?

I wouldn’t mind drowning down here with you.

Could we keep the facade a little bit longer?

It’s surprisingly comfortable here in the cold and the dark.

Bubbles floating up.

I ain’t floating.

Love with you ain’t a rollercoaster,

It’s a pit where we drift ever closer,

The bars of this car grow ever colder,

We approach the inescapable border,

And cross once and for all.

Love ain’t a rollercoaster,

We never ascend.