Every love potion I’ve ever swallowed has been too weak.
Cupid thinks I can’t hold my liquor,
so he dilutes my drinks
with uncertainty, insincerity, fear, and the like.
I don’t know what poison he coats his arrows with,
but all the ones aimed at me have only been half-dipped.
I know he’s a baby and all,
but I really wish he’d get his shit together
because I am so sick of half-assed love.
I lied because I didn’t know how else to say it other than,
“Screw you, I’ve wanted to see Moonrise Kingdom ever since I saw
a queer couple at school
dress as Sam and Suzy
for Halloween sophomore year.”
But he wasn’t like that,
he was a lot unlike me.
He was uncertainty,
he was probably insincerity,
and I know I am always fear, so….
Let’s talk about love.
Let’s talk about loving certainly,
securely.
Let’s talk about loving sincerely.
Let’s talk about loving without needing
to be shot in the heart with an arrow in order to do so.
All of the poems and songs and stories talk
about unconditional love,
and I always say to myself,
“What the hell even is that?
How can we love unconditionally
when we are all conditional?
We are all humans, in this human condition.”
I’ve been thinking out loud a lot lately,
and maybe that’s my condition:
I can’t make anything in this mind of mine
make sense unless I say it out loud,
so let’s talk about love out loud, right now.
Lying about Wes Anderson is not love.
Diluted drinks are not love.
An arrow through the heart sure as hell ain’t love.
This poem is not going to end with me telling you
what love is because there is no arrow that points toward the answer.
I don’t know the answer. Nobody knows the answer.
But what I do know is that next time something like love comes knocking,
I’m just gonna ask the dude,
“Do you wanna watch Moonrise Kingdom sometime?”
Sarah Ruth Penna enjoys writing as a creative process that feels intuitive and free. Her debut poetry collection, Secret Alphabets, was released in June 2026 with Metaphysical Fox Press. She is a monthly contributor to the website Hey Young Writer, the Outdoor Experience Manager at Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts, and owns a small business, Hyacinth House Arts & Wellness. In her free time she enjoys photography, making collages, singing, and spending time outside. Her poetry is deeply influenced by the New England Transcendentalists, Mary Oliver, levi the poet, mythology, nature, chronic illness, & her Italian-American heritage. Her daily life is a synergy of Nature, Art, and Community. She lives in gratitude, overlooking Cedar Lake in Sturbridge, MA.
Featured image by Simon Ray on Unsplash.
