We
together sit upon the earth
in the shadows
of a sundial that connects
Me
to the soil that fed me
from the mud patties I fed me
with a place that grounded me
of a ground that holds family
Us
under the sun defines place
out of it seasons my own
by it my skin coloured with life
across the hills dried into loam
with pine needles ticks and cacti
while each pierced my youth
You
of me — are me — mine am I yours
about me your legacy
towards your stories I lean
at your side I am held safely
since joined
by a name we share
Ours
of a place I’ll always call home
from its name a singularity
through it our plurality
out of it divided we grow
into the past’s imagined future
beside your history stitched to mine
I
of sour-cherry orchards that marked my springs
of mountains and swells my Grandma always holds me
of hummingbirds, dragon-flies, and butterflies my possibilities
of forest sticks and forts my Crusoe imagination springs
of gullies and swamps that taught me nature small
of roses and gardens incensing every sweet memory
of water and beaches that gave frivolity, puberty and maturity
with you share.

∞

Submitted as part of “National/Global Poetry Writing Month” (#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo).
Today’s prompt: Today, taking a leaf from Safia Elhillo’s work, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem of origin. Where are you from? Not just geographically, but emotionally, physically, spiritually? Maybe you are from Vikings and the sea and diet coke and angry gulls in parking lots. Maybe you are from gentle hills and angry mothers and dust disappearing down an unpaved road. And having come from there, where are you now?