Where
I'm From
I am from a town filled with tall towers and
taller dreams.
I am a Pisces, by way of Brooklyn, which makes no sense
because fish need the ocean in order to survive and there’s
only concrete
and brownstones and good pizza in Brooklyn
which means that I should have been dead a long time ago
but no,
I am from stubborn Euro-mutt stock
and I refuse to die.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
I was baptized Roman Catholic,
dipping my soul into the pool of Eastern religion—
Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist.
I’m
from Brooklyn by way of Europe,
which means that a double espresso is
like water to me, and drinking wine with dinner
does not, I repeat, does not mean that one
is an alcoholic.
I am from treehugging roots, in awe of earth’s blues
and greens—
ocean, sky, grass, and trees and all of earth’s
furred and feathered
creatures—the artful arc of a hawk’s
wing span, the regal posture of
the domestic cat, the endearing
loyalty of the faithful lapdog.
I am the granddaughter of refugees
who crossed an ocean
to come to America
and they might as well have landed
from Mars
because they spoke in a foreign tongue
like aliens
and struggled to learn
English
a language that I have
fallen in love
with. |