where I'm from

Form for poem stolen via schmutzie from Fred 1st

I am from the soft black tarmac, grid road gravel, and cement from all across this country of mine, the gypsy without a caravan.

I am from a collection of damp & musty lowheaded dungeons with an occasional airy garret and two bedrooms I never had to share with the nasssty sisters.

I am from the dandy~lions that turn my underchin to butter and all the smellpretty tastegood nonedible blossoms in the Winnipeg Conservatory until I discovered the aromatic beauty of gardenias and the dessert properties of honeysuckle.

I am from New Year's Eve family brawls and laughing in the face of adversity, from the upright white gloved pear-brandy-in-the-corner-cupboard teatotaller Grandma Millie and the sweet nail-you-with-the-bendy-slipper-around-a-corner-at-30-mph Grandma Kay and PigTail Patty, the most generous openhearted and stubborn woman known to man, or me.

I am from self inflicted loneliness and isolation in the middle of the crowd.

From born in the barn and if your friends jumped off a bridge... to where the hell are your shoes donna kathleen odette.

I am the only baptized child, Gramma Millie did it, and the only one smart enough to go to church sundays - any church - to avoid dad's hangovers.Quadruply blessed, Presbyterian, United, Catholic, Lutheran, and now a godless buddhist.

I'm from the stewpot of of the north with dragon boats bastard swords bagpipes fjords and the yew, leavened with the holy potatoe, yorkshire pudding and dumplings with the occasional shot of the most terrible homebrew.

From the the first day of summer freedom at the bottom of the monkey bars wailing the blues with a broken wrist and having to walk 2 miles because Lynn Shadbolt wouldn't double me to Grama's. The key keeper to the vintage transportation cousin Les & I attempted to master because that's the way we roll.

I am from the rock garden/strawberry patch/riverbank/treehouse and concrete jungle camera always in hand, the archivist, framily in my heart wherever I traipse and the pics backed up onto a portable drive. Shaped by a little piece of each of the black & whites posted on the soul wall and glued together with the love and respect gifted to me.