A Note from the Editor, Max Wallis

In How Our Love Ends, Joseph Fasano brings his characteristically cinematic lyricism to bear on the quiet catastrophe of parting. Here, love’s dissolution is neither rupture nor drama, but a final, tender surrender. A red dress. A blue suit. A single silent touch in the kitchen. Fasano sketches the end of a shared life not through argument or betrayal but through ceremony and near-mythic ache. The poem’s final image, “the deep-grooved gloves of falconers / that have learned the infinite difference / between giving up and letting something go”—encapsulates not just the poem’s emotional restraint, but its hard-earned wisdom. It’s a devastatingly adult ending. No blame. No flare. Just the moonlit truth that love, however raw, can sometimes only be released, not rescued.

Buy a copy of the mag to read more.

More from Joseph here:

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe