A Collection of Flowers for My Love
Leroy's debut collection explores the ideas of love and loss, the experiences of grief and healing, and the beauty of finding a reason to keep going. A Collection of Flowers for My Love details blushing passion and self-reflection; each piece is an expression and tribute of love, life, and hope. In addition to exploring natural metaphor and deep emotion, the collected works dive into the transformative power of tragedy, the catharsis of survival, and the peace we can find in the end—and how we can be okay.
I mostly wrote this collection to express the experience of losing a partner to suicide. The grief and the anger, the empty spaces and the the yearning, the reminiscence and relearning how to be someone again. The details captured in the collection are fictionalized and expanded from my own real-life experience and emotion and are, ultimately, part of my own journey of healing.
— Leroy
“i met you under a would-be forest fire
i lit the match you handed me
and i dropped the shirts at our feet
and i dropped your wishes into my lungs
and i sank your skin into my waiting teeth like lips to dandelions ”
— “The Burning Tree (i met the dead when he was still alive)”