I want many things I don’t want to want

I know you well enough to love

you like that the leaves in autumn

change along with me I am

of the earth fruit ripens as I do

vines curl in my likeness all 

flowers grow in my image 

it’s the leaves that are over me I have 

no interest in stepping on them I love you

like them it is inevitable it is useless to 

pinch my love for you or crush it or say it 

how I don’t mean it still I keep doing it 

it’s safer like this at least our foundation 

isn’t dying the roots last over winter 

when I hesitate saying its meaning 

falls out of my hands I mean I love you 

as be careful with me tread lightly you are

not the only dangerous thing I’m addicted to 

hesitation coated in softness we don’t 

owe each other anything yet you love 

watching flowers bloom even 

your hell has a garden and I feel 

the leaves under my feet they’re beautiful 

falling from the sky they’re beautiful 

here on the ground I love you enough

to know that everything dying here means 

I’m coming home to you

Victoria Mbabazi’s work can be found in several literary magazines including Rejection Letters, Minola Review and No Contact Mag. Their chapbook chapbook is available with Anstruther Press and their chapbook FLIP is forthcoming this spring with Knife Fork Books. They’re currently living in Brooklyn, New York.