2025/Jessica -30926

I am from nature and bad smelling farms.

From manners and beautiful blossom trees.

I am from the rocky and sandy pathways under the temples we pray for good fortune.

It smelled like bad air that gets worse from time to time and smoke from factories and cigarettes.

I am from pretty kimonos, the sushi that came from our ocean.

Whose amazing food that I loved and I remember

as if they were my own.

I am from popstars and traditional food like soba,

from my Stay-a-Home Mom and Hard-Working Dad.

I am from the subways and trains that people take to go places

and safe driving and cheap stores,

From “I need you to go.” and “Hurry up and clean this mess!!”

I am from the sport where you must control your strength

with a net to get the ball over

And ten sets I can do myself.

I’m from volleyball and baking,

socializing and hanging out.

From the friendships I lost

to the moving and the best friends that used to keep me so happy.

Under my bed was a stuffed animal spilling cotton,

an old passion of mine drifting away

To drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments - trying before I gave up.

I am a leaf attempting to fly high from the family tree.

- Inspired by George Ella Lyon