We Are Lavender

i look to my left 

to my mother in the driver's seat 

today we will drive until we 

hit water and we’ll roll every window down and

sing until our voices are hoarse and we’ll stop 

for ice cream in the hamptons and we’ll pass

the lavender fields and i’ll 

stick my head out the window and let the

scent fill my lungs to capacity and we’ll smile 

to each other with silent understanding coursing 

through the middle console 

i am a woman who loves women 

this love flows through my veins from my

toes to my scalp it's in every capillary soaking 

every tissue in admiration and when I was young

i would fall asleep in my own bed and wake 

in the arms of my mother and part of me thinks i was

trying to go back to being a lavender seed in her stomach 

but she would kiss me on the forehead and tell me “grow, 

little girl, you have fields to fill with your beauty” 

i come from a long line of strong women 

they are all in me they stuff my body with

bouquets of alliance and community and

their scars are mine but 

my mouth is theirs 

constructed to reverse their silence to

tell their stories and yet still 

we pluck each other and 

we fertilize each other all the same.