The Gravity of Sadness
by Adrienne Marie Barrios and Leigh Chadwick
Adrienne Barrios wonders if love is ever actually love or if it’s just pretending to want to eat dinner together. She wonders if apple juice molds when no one is looking, or if she would hear the shatter of her windshield if she suddenly pulled the emergency break as she headed, during rush hour, eastbound on I-90. She wonders, Would you still put the car away if all the parking spots became grass? Someone tells Adrienne Barrios, There are more than a few of us for whom life is an ache and a long red glare over the horizon. Adrienne Barrios asks Leigh Chadwick, Will you tell your daughter about the gravity of sadness, or will you hope she never needs to know? Leigh Chadwick collects a single tear in a vial and mails it to 2053. 2053 doesn’t mail anything back. 2053 is an asshole. Leigh Chadwick calls 2047 and says, Can you believe 2053? And 2047 says, I know, but it’ll never be anything worth remembering. Somewhere, a rainbow forgets the color red. Somewhere, the wind goes purple. Somewhere, ginger forgets how to burn and you turn pale.
Adrienne Marie Barrios is the editor-in-chief of Reservoir Road Literary Review and CLOVES Literary and author of the collaborative poetry collection Too Much Tongue (Autofocus, 2022), co-written with Leigh Chadwick. Her work has appeared in trampset, Passages North, Sledgehammer Lit, and X-R-A-Y Lit Mag, among others. She edits award-winning novels and short stories. Find her online at adriennemariebarrios.com.
Leigh Chadwick is the author of the poetry collection Your Favorite Poet (Malarkey Books, 2022) and the collaborative poetry collection Too Much Tongue (Autofocus, 2022), co-written with Adrienne Marie Barrios. Her poetry has appeared in Salamander, Passages North, The Indianapolis Review, and Hobart, among others. She is a regular contributor at Olney Magazine, where she conducts the "Mediocre Conversations" interview series. Find her on Twitter at @LeighChadwick5.
