I want to go back
to that dorm room with you.
I’ll love you right this time around,
so you’ll love me, too.

But I’m a thing that needs freedom,
and you kept a tight tether.
I hissed and bit and clawed,
and now we’re not together.

I’m free from you now,
alone
with the pain and sorrow
and ghosts of lilacs that you’d grown.