The Lavender Issue 2.5: Valentine's Day

The Lavender: Vol 2.5 Valentine’s Day 2022

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE LAVENDER!

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ODE TO DYKES Anonymous She wore a loose black jersey black basketball shorts silver chain

I stood sixteen years sweating under harsh orange light the bleachers

bouncing

dropped

I traced shoulders to strong arms to chest thighs calves white sneakers

out from under the floor splintered into an abyss swallowed me whole and I

pounding

dropped into the darkness pleading take me please

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE LAVENDER!

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your face %\ 6DEULQD 7LDQ ¶ there are moles on it we can have moles together and they are black and dig holes with moles together brown kill crows and sip joe together like your eyes get towed and break toes together and your hair touch my nose to your nose. and my eyes Together. and my hair and my moles There is a bump on your nose are black and brown too. that i wish i could lie on i wish i could jump from beside all your moles. one to the next like a frog in love.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE LAVENDER!

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Poem about you %\ 6DUDK $OEHUW ¶ , ORYH KRZ \RX DUHQ·W , ZDQW WR GDQFH ZLWK \RX afraid , ZDQW WR WKURZ P\ ERG\ 7R ORRN VWXSLG ZKHQ \RX *LYH P\VHOI WR WKH DLU dance.

Yell. $QG WKDW \RX GRQ·W FDUH 6LQJ ZLWK \RX How you sound Feel you in my arms.

When you sing.

6SHDN WKLV WR \RX <RX PDNH PH ZDQW WR run. :LWK \RX 6RPHZKHUH IDU 6RPH SODFH ZKHUH WKH grass is +LJK XS RXU OHJV DQG 7KH JQDWV ZRQ·W TXLW

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE LAVENDER!

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Love Language

By O.E. What can I call you but “my love”, my love?

“My beloved”, “sugar-pie”, “sweet-honey”?

Oh, you hang on like concrete dust RQ D FDW FDOOLQJ FRQVWUXFWLRQ ZRUNHU·V PHWDO WRHG ZRUN ERRW Sorry, uh, what I meant was: you hold on like the cuffs of jeans on the thrift-store menaces of America, the small sandwiches and weird knick-knacks RI KXPDQRLG PLFH RQ HYHU\ *UDQGPD·V WDEOH You look up at me: legs rolling into a pillow stomach and pink sloping breasts, and a please-be-quiet smile.

Just hold me, you say To shut me up.

2ND\ ¶P\ ORYH· EXW GRQ·W VD\ , GLGQ·W DVN«

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY FROM THE LAVENDER!

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10/11 Love poem %\ /LOD %ODXVWHLQ ¶ <RX·UH WKH UHDVRQ , EUXVK P\ WHHWK ILUVW WKLQJ LQ WKH PRUQLQJ \RX KDYH FKDQJHG PH IRU WKH EHWWHU

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY FROM THE LAVENDER!

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If You Believe in Souls, Do You Think We Share One? %\ (PLO\ +ROODQGHU ¶ If we were brought into this world to search for our partner, I have cheated the system They say we were the sun, the earth, and the moon, propelled by circular motion, cartwheeling and back-handspringing around the globe When Zeus split us in two, the eternal urge was born, for linkage, for pressing two bodies back into one

They say that creation happens in pairs that energy and particles collided, were forced into matter, this so-called universe I believe what they say, and perhaps I will never know that eternal urge because the gods forgot to fling our bodies across the sea and we were allowed to walk into this world together