I don’t believe in love
at first sight but I can
know I will love someone
the second I see them
the key is the word yet 

we are covered in blue
an illusion of clarity
you cannot hold water
in your hands it runs through
it runs clear it remembers 

before it washes us clean
it holds before it fills
our lungs and I
have done everything
to not sit in it 

I tried to grow legs
and run from us
I tried to let the fire
burn us slowly 

but this was always
the solution to forget
the sky and all its colour
to lay my head underwater 

to hit the sand I knew it
when I saw you I saw it
I kept seeing you visions
took over my dreams 

it’s okay lay your head
next to mine darling
we are not capable
of drowning

 

___________________

Victoria Mbabazi’s work can be found in several literary magazines. Chapbook is available with Anstruther Press and FLIP is available with Knife Fork Book. Their full-length collection The Siren In the Twelfth House is coming out in Fall 2024 with Palimpsest Press. Their collection of personal essays and poetry Death To All Darlings is coming out with Fernwood Publishing in Fall 2025. They’re currently Canadian in Brooklyn, New York.