Where I Am From

Christmas Dinner
where I am showing off my new doll

I am from lunchboxes with glass thermoses

from smocked dresses and a canopy bed

I am from the one story ranch style 

the smell of baking cakes

 and the smell of anesthesia.

I am from the violet bed, bouganvilla and yucca

The maple tree whose long gone limbs 

I remember as if they were my own.

I’m from dinner at the kitchen table and five children 

from Ted and Evelyn

from Jim and Sharon

from George and Sophronia

I’m from Sunday Services and Revival meetings

and surgeries and Girl Scout meetings.

From playing in the schoolyard over the back fence

and football in the Autumn and baseball in the Spring.

I’m from “God is love” and “Love one another”

“Girls should be quiet”, “Why can't you sit still”

“What is that scar on your face?”

and “I'm A Little Teapot” 

I’m from road trip vacations in the south

I’m from Norwalk and The Cherokee and The immigrants

Mashed potatoes and Americanized enchiladas

From my grandmother who was adopted to save a failing marriage

in a time when it was just a legal contract.

From understanding the phrase

“Babies don't make good glue”

From mother who wondered if she was enough

having been born to a woman who felt that about herself.

From painted china in my antique hutch

From artwork on walls

From the hands of women who left beauty in

a world where doubt and hurt colored their lives. 

Always,

Hope

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