Where I'm From

Where I'm From

I am from charcoal grills

From crochet hooks and fishing poles - Snoopy.

I am from the metal, sub-arctic swing set,

Whose icy, smooth surface became a new home

To the skin of my tender tongue.

I am from the frozen swamp in the woods

The powder blue ice skates whose blades

Crisply cut the silence of the deer and pines.

I am from pasties and homemade spaghetti sauce,

From Richard and Virginia

I'm from the how 'bout thats and the dinky doopa song,

From ishy fishy and grandma aunties.

I'm from chocolate blender malts, pork chops, and applesauce,

The Bradys, the Ingalls,

I'm from a neighborhood man named Rogers and a bird named Big.

I am from Dale and Dian's Branch.

Oreo cookies and Diet Pepsi.

From the arthritis that took my grandmother's joints,

The habit that stole my Papa's breath -but now kicked.

Next to my bed were the shelves that housed imagined friends,

Betsy, Ramona, and Ralph S. Mouse.

A Princess and Secret Gardens.

Imagined friends that inspired notebooks of penciled fiction.

I am from those moments -

Sharing the limb of Darren -

His Sissy to my Bear.

--Carrie L. Hanson

October, 2002