Adam Breier - Fickle Truths

The advice that nothing

is as good, or as bad

as it seems

was as true as the

sales-pitch perfect tone

with which it was delivered.

It sounded sage.

Nothing

is as good or as bad

as it seems.

For as long

as I imagined that advice to

ooze wisdom,

I saw its droppings everywhere.

Nothing

is as good or as bad

as it seems.

Except, it seems

when something is

far worse than

imaginable

and when dreaming of the

chance, to talk

to my younger me

to warn about

that decision, or

that turn

I can’t commit to acting on that

time-warp fantasy

because, with all fickle truths

being true

I’m afraid to risk

all that is

so much better

than I should have

ever

hoped

for.

From the Press:

Adam Breier's Fickle Truths interrogates the comfort and corrosion that come packaged inside "good advice." The way Breier takes commonplace advice—nothing is as good or as bad as it seems—then proceeds to show how repetition itself can hollow out meaning, turning wisdom into a faint echo of its former self.

What gives the piece its quiet power is how it turns inward near the end: his voice no longer debates the phrase but measures its consequence. The yearning to warn his younger self is left unspoken, not out of resignation, but out of wary gratitude. Breier reminds us that the same decisions that once wounded us also built the improbable good we now stand inside. The poem doesn't reject this advice; it reframes it.

About the Author:

Adam has spent nearly 30 years as an educator in roles including high school English teacher, founding high school principal, and leader of Career and Technical Education (CTE) for New York City Public Schools. He is a husband, father of two daughters, and writes poetry and short fiction that explores moments experienced and the lessons learned, or ignored, in the after math.

Adam has one published poetry chapbook, An Odor of His Own, with poetry and short fiction appearing in: Bristol Noir, Stone Poetry Quarterly, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, 'Merica Magazine, The PPA Literary Journal, Soul Foundation, and Outsider Ink. You can follow Adam on Instagram @adam_breier_poetry and on his website at adambreier.com

Where to Find:

An Odor of His Own, available on Amazon, Bristol Noir, Stone Poetry Quarterly, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, 'Merica Magazine, The PPA Literary Journal, Soul Foundation, and Outsider Ink, on Instagram @adam_breier_poetry, and on his website www.adambreier.com