If the carpet is red you can’t
see the blood on the floor take that
advice for the couch the table the walls
it’ll be a new space let it be loud unafraid
of its darkness you’re impatient but I missed
tension if it is butter set it out let it melt over
the counter I like stray arrows elephants
roaming around our living room

if I get shot we’ll decorate the curtains red
is passion that’s what you wanted love
as renewal love is afterbirth it is bloody
dear god if you didn’t want to hunt for me
you should’ve came with more answers
than questions I’m not inquisitive I’m not

interested in knowing I love cliff hanging
I want undertones between lines edging prey
running from our bedroom and I’m sorry
you should’ve shredded the lease you
should’ve read the fine print this love
is a reckoning its death will be quick
unsatisfying you were always a pierced heart
my love was always an arrow and I’d rather

the house be covered in blood than bleach or empty
apologies I’d rather fight around it than about it
let’s aim for moving targets bystanders dying
in our kitchen please don’t tell me you’re sorry
because I know what will happen if we cut
the tension I don’t want to be the one
left bleeding out on the table

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. They’re currently Canadian in Brooklyn, New York.

MaryKate Glenn (she / her) is an an artist and performer. Her work explores the unconscious through physical expression, and documents intimacy through and with people she loves. She takes film photographs, plays with clay, moves her body often, and occasionally turns into other people (is an actor). Currently based in Los Angeles.