I am from Lambert Street, lead contaminated row homes boxed in by drug dealers and addicts.

I am from freedom and responsibility with choices to fly high and dream big.

I am indivisible by nine.

I am from the crossroads of Kansas City and South Philadelphia.

I am from Mars and Venus, a butcher and a seamstress.

I am from burnt food, technical prowess and creative ingenuity.

I am from independent thinkers who created art by the lives they lived.

I am from baseball, fishing, crossword puzzles, pinochle, scrabble and sudoku.

I am from ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ and ‘What the samhill is the matter with you?’

I am from garlic cloves and Ms. Van Esther.

I am from meatballs, Spaghetti and brachioles on Sunday dinner.

I am from the fear of Sr. Margaret St. Francis and the gentleness of Sr. Eleanor.

I am from music imagination, dreams and miracles.

I am from justice, civil rights,  and taking a stand.

I am from freedom and responsibility indivisible by nine minus one.

I am from past, present and future and all worlds in between.

I am still becoming.

                                                                                                June 6, 15/07

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I AM FROM (version 2)

 

Fish sticks on Fridays and spaghetti and meatballs on Sunday and burnt dinners in between.

 

I am from flute lessons, singing in the choir with a secret dream of dance lessons instead!

 

From long family drives to the airport to watch planes take off and land and surprise trips to amusements parks and just long drives away from Lambert Street.

 

I am from crossword puzzles, scrabble, stickball.

Dogs and cats and lots of brothers and sisters to watch and be watched over.

 

I am from Barbara and Daniel, two strong willed-parents who let me be myself.

 

I am from Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, where my love of family originated.

                                                                  9/12/07