Where I’m From #6

By Tiffany Babb

Inspired by George Ella Lyon

I am from coffee grounds

From cheap maple syrup and Lipton tea bags

I am from the place where spiders hide

chaotic, loud-- where are you?

I am from dandelion blossoms

Heavy with pollen and waiting to travel

I'm from celery and onions

chopped so fine they're transparent,

From Eloisa and Chuyi

I'm from laughing too loud and loving too quiet

From "Close the gates so the wolf doesn't get in"

and "Yo mama wears combat boots"

I'm from creaking hymns playing on the radio

late into the night, sung by strange voices

from another time

I'm from the dry dirt of California

from airplanes and cars taking travelers

to places they've never been before,

new places, to start a life

Rich soup noodles,

crumbly potato chip cookies

From the stealing of a cake

from a wedding that had gone sour

The heavily permed hair of the eighties,

aging photos kept in a cracking plastic binder

of unremembered faces,

documents that have lost their meaning.

But we watch over them and preserve them,

knowing that although the faces are unremembered

and the documents have lost their meaning,

we cannot afford to lose more.

Where to find Tiffany:

Website: https://www.tiffanybabb.com/

Where to find Alyson:

Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com

Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/