It seems that you forget
Or rather you don’t know
That I am the type who falls in love
Who will dribble you in my sleep
And look for your name on my phone
Like checking I have my keys
That I am the type that will make space and more space for all that you can be
Not realising everything I had to Chuck out
so I can be sure you can breathe
And that your throne will only be raised on the desert this will cause
I am the kind that will smile at the words I invent for you and will scowl
When you don’t follow your lines
I will grow suspicious that you won’t
Love me as planned
I will be disappointed
Because you’ll disappoint
And you’ll probably disappear
The texts will take their time
So I will prepared when the heart rate dies out
I will lie flowers in between us
Like a wall
I will mourn as the petals decompose
I will rub it’s juices, staining my face
I will be dismayed when you shrivel
And all I see are the thorns and the
Chances of tetanus
I will scratch myself and say you are the cause
I will cry but no tears can reverse petals being dry
I will store them in small boxes
The kind you stick at the bottom of drawers never to show
It will give all my clothes that used to be loved scent

She is a recent graduate from the University of Oxford and is the recent winner of the 2024 University of Oxford, University College Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been published in the Oxford Blue, Hypaethral Magazine, Roots and their Branches, Original Sin, How2bBad and The Wells Street Journal.