to reconcile; to understand
i come from backcountry roads and woods.
outside city limits.
i come from farmland and factories.
yoplait in my backyard.
i come from sawmills and saloons.
karaoke on a tuesday.
i come from moonshine and kitchen sinks.
shots in the deer blind.
i come from forestocks and chambers.
keeping everything in my sights.
i come from treetops when streetlights illuminate a darkened road home.
a mother's call.
i come from the four-wheel.
i come from the creek.
i come from the clay cliffs that hang over the track.
i come from maple, cedar, lilac, and apple trees.
"safari" in my dad's camo.
neighborhood games of tag and water fights.
rural charm, small-town niceties.
a pleasant hello on a sunday afternoon, i come from
church and charcoal
grills. green bean casserole with cornflakes on top.
i come from picnics in a park where smokestacks choke and cloud views.
pollution.
the john denver sing-along echoing across the muskegon
from the riverside lounge named after a slur,
reminds me that not all of the places
i come from are
the place i belong.
About the Creator
kp
I am a non-binary, trans-masc writer. I work to dismantle internalized structures of oppression, such as the gender binary, class, and race. My writing is personal but anecdotally points to a larger political picture of systemic injustice.
Standing While Falling
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche "He who wrestles long with monsters should beware lest he himself become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Man is not destroyed by suffering, but by the meaning he makes of it."
By LUCCIAN LAYTH7 days ago in Critique
Comments (4)
This was so striking, the way you delve into your familiarity with your home and contrast it with a true place of belonging at the very end. Incredible work!
Ah, kp. I loved the images you used here and the feeling of nostalgia and wholesomeness that they seem to create and then those last three lines whip the cloth out from under them completely.
kp… once again you’ve blown my mind and the last three lines added perspective to every word you wrote! Beautiful. The one place we always belong is that sure place we all have hidden in our heart.
💙