Adversarial by Joan Peternel

This piece was taken from the archives of the Mother Theresa Hackelmeier Library on Marian University's main campus. It was originally published in Volume 50, Number 2 by the 1991-1992 Fioretti students.

---

In an opposition of some kind.

That's where poetry can happen.

Between slime and sublimity,

between a howl and a hosanna.

A poem may be two armies met

upon a bridge. Competing

for anothr breath, one side

is marked for death.

Or two dancers waltzing round

a ballroom floor.

His mightier muscles and

her finer feet cooperate.

I'm trying, Reader, to survive

your liveliest artillery.

You try remembering one leads

and one must follow.