The Other Adam Ford

This week’s poem of the week

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Anti-RomCom Pop Song

the girl that I like doesn’t like me
so I
respected her decision as an autonomous human being
and rejected the false promises fed to me
by the prevalence of stories about nerds made good who
waited around and around and around in the hope
that the girl that they liked who didn’t like them
would change her mind when the nerd found a way
to prove his love, which he would (and she would)

and so I got on with my life
and left her to get on with hers
and so I got on with my life
and left her to get on with hers
the end

the girl that I like doesn’t like me
so I
rejected the inherent chattel implications
that paint all women as not only a prize
to be won or earned but invariably heterosexual
and left her to a life of her own determination
and went on to follow my own life path
without her, allowing myself to feel
regret but not anger, not stooping to allow

my sense of regret to convince me that
romantic relationships can ever be anything else
than based on mutual feelings of attraction
which if absent should not be taken as a sign
that any kind of coercion or cajoling is
an appropriate response to the circumstances

and so I got on with my life
and left her to get on with hers

and so I got on with my life
and left her to get on with hers

the end

the end the end the end

---

This week’s poem was originally published in Volume 5, Issue 1 of Australian Poetry Journal. It was written in response to listening a little closer than I had before to the lyrics on The Wombats’ A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, in particular “Kill the Director”.

For more of my poems, head to the Books or Other poems and stories sections of this site.

Come back next week for another poem. And to find out what I’m working on and where you can read my latest writings, sign up for Adam’s Occasional Poetry News.

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