Where I'm from

I am from secondhand smoke

From silly bands and store brand everything

I am from the living room couch

Musty, Frayed, Soft

It felt like my mother’s arms if she wasn’t there to comfort me

I am from the dead houseplants that never got watered.

The coconut oil smeared onto chapped dry lips.

Cold and smooth. Waxy and smeared.

I’m from the long road trips and disorganization

From The Carnleys and The Glasers

And from Lea Elaine Melchior

I’m from stubbornness and procrastination

From lame dad jokes and “go ask mom”

I’m from godless good deeds

And treating people right for no other reason than it being the right thing to do

I’m from Germany and France and Spain and Austria and Ireland

Sauerkraut and Pasta

From the time when I was tubing with dad and a tornado struck

The jagged scar on my grandpa’s knee

Few family pictures piled up in a box down in the basement, long forgotten

I am from hope and despair, from successes and failures, life and death. ~S1!