I am from warm hugs
From sweet child O` mine lullabies and a star wars bedtime story
I am from rowdy boys crowded around a bridge ready to jump
I am from puppies in a bin baying and crowding around a mother basset
I am from apple pie dreams and hands older than me and stories spoken over
Laughter and the smell of food cooking in the oven
I am from the morning
Warm sunshine smiles and daisy chain afternoons
Brothers with too tall bodies and too small sensibilities
Confused and wonderful
I am from a garage
Alternative rock, the smell of grease and men and fixing the problem
Pieces clicking together like a puzzle
I am from a field
Scratches bug bites and high grass
Scrapes and bruises falling out of trees and into fun
I am from costuming
Bright sequin, improbable characters, and laudable performances
Lines not quite memorized but somehow funnier that way
I am from competition
Racing past a sibling or cousin to get through the kitchen first without being scolded by that one aunt
To
Racing through the air trying to get to a ball just beyond my fingertips so I can pound it into the ground before it’s blocked
I am from a kitchen
Smells that evoke nostalgia in every southern heart
All the sisters, cousins, aunts and grandmother gathered in the kitchen with bustling mouths laughing as they cook turkey, potatoes and cranberry jam and the menfolk watch football and the kids play a façade of the game of the day
I am from elegance
Being taught table manners, learning how to walk in 6"s and how to do my makeup from a favored aunt for the prom
Learning how to be a lady
I am from vibrancy
Spinning sepia-tinged memories filled with stars dreams and sadness
I am from a field lying between my parents learning Draco, the dippers, mars, and planets chasing the sisters and running from Orion’s bow
I am from the stars
A new adult wandering the earth
My head in the clouds with lofty ideas, hopes, and longing to be the cause of change
I am from a promise
A promise to learn
A promise to live
A promise to laugh
A promise to cry
A promise to succeed
A promise to fail
A promise to be me