Where I'm From

Seems this was a meme awhile back. I found one on Mary's new blog, and she pointed me in the direction of Fragments from Floyd where Fred has a link in his sidebar to everything you want to know about Where I'm From. But without further ado, here's mine:

Where I'm From

I am from cups and saucers,
Toni perms and pink gingham.
I am from the barn-red Cape on the corner,
from hopscotch and jump rope.
I am from the weeping willow,
the crabapple and the lilacs.
I am from Easter egg hunts
and hidden tensions,
from Alice and Antonina,
Grammy and Bubby.
I am from Irish humor and Polish picnics,
lace curtain class and peasant crass,
tea with milk and whiskey highballs.
From too big for your britches
and enough blue sky to patch a man’s pants.
I am from plaid uniforms,
dark confessionals, the quiet
communing amplitude of empty pews.
I am from granite, from deep snow,
from a half-a-peck of Mac apples.
I am from an educated spinster
and an illiterate orphan,
from their sharp-tongued daughter
and her taciturn husband.
I am from home movies,
deckle-edged stills of exuberant cousins,
and sepia-toned ancestors
in the promise of their youth.

---

Comments

[Mary]

Leslee, thank you.

Love this. The phrases conjures up such clear images.

-Lace curtain class and peasant crass
tea with milk and whiskey highballs-

Wonderful.

(A question : what is a Cape? :-))

[leslee]

Thanks, Mary. A Cape is a Cape Cod style house, very common in New England. :-)

[Roberta]

That's really nice, Leslee. I like it.

[maria]

This is wonderful -- sunny, but with enough of a hint of drakness to deepen the mystery of where the speaker is really from...

[Mary]

Ah, I see ......I've learned something.:-)

[Kurt]

This is vivid, concrete, and tender at the same time. I'm struck by how connected you feel to parents and ancestors, as well as place.

[leslee]

Thanks, all. It was an interesting exercise.

Kurt: The connections really come from the format of the piece that Fred put together - a fill-in-the-blanks template to get things started. I feel like I've spent a good deal of my life trying to disentangle myself from my roots, but nevertheless there they are.

[beth]

I liked this a lot, Leslee - and recognized a lot in it. It may have started as a template, but it's a good poem.

[leslee]

Thanks, Beth.