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The Reason
Pam Vap

The reason I love you
has something
to do with the way I can fit myself
inside your kiss. It also has something
to do with the new belt on the vacuum
and how you take
the trash to the curb on Tuesdays.
The reason I love you
has something to do with the fire
of your skin at night, the candle burning,
the coffee in the morning, the smell
of coffee in the morning, and more than that,
the cup brimming. The reason
I love you has something to do
with the grocery list in your pocket,
and the deep look in your grey blue eyes.
It is the sound of your voice
on the telephone which pulls me.
The reason I love you is the vase
of orange zinnias on my nightstand
next to the framed wedding picture.
It is the saffron and currants soaked in rum
which you add to the dough you are kneading.
It is your large hands kneading. It is the yeast.
It is the bread which I eat.

—
Pam Vap is a high school English teacher in Phoenix, Arizona. For her MFA, she received an Outstanding Thesis Award from the University of Nebraska for her book nightwriting. She was a first place winner in the Nebraska Writer’s Guild Poetry contest, a first place Goodreads poetry winner, an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Honorable Mention, and a finalist in the Prime Number Award for Poetry. She has recently published in Poetry East, RavensPerch, Pudding Magazine, Poetry on the Plains, DASH, and Glacial Hills Review.

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Have you read these poems:
These Days by John Krumberger
And so I entered a room by Marjorie Power

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