Victoria Mbabazi

Game Night at the Fifth House

Do you want me
to put the poison in the wine I’m drinking
or in the beer you’ll drink later?
Are you still mad at me?
If an Apple dies as a tree
falls into an ocean
are you still staying the night?
Do you want to leave me?

I love party games
Mafia is my favourite
You are good at killing
loving is better
familiar and fatal

I am good at knowing
the mood of a door
when it closes
If the tap is crying
when it doesn’t shut
all the way off I am good

at engulfing my space
the couch is capable of breathing
and it keeps breaking its legs
I can be good I promise
I am great at becoming
whatever you want me to be
Give me a second give me time

Let me show you I promise
I can walk back into that burning target
and remember all the things
you wanted from the store

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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.