2025/Ryan-30969

I am from The Island of Formosa

I am from the festival of dragons under the lantern-filled sky

The air smelled strong of incense sticks and burning lanterns to honor the fallen relatives

I am from red and yellow architecture

The home of one of the tallest towers

Whose great heights I remember as if they were my own.

I am from hanboks and kimchi,

From a Lieutenant Colonel and a Mother of Two.

I am from the tall, ragged mountains

And skyscrapers that reach into the sky.

I am from dandelions and purple.

I am from a variety of sports

With a hanging net

And ten shots I can make myself.

I’m from instruments and music,

Mozart and Beethoven

From the relatives I've lost to the ones that still live,

To the old belongings that used to keep me entertained.

Under my bed was a box of pictures spilling out old memories

A broken fragment of the past

To drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments -

That were deeply beloved to me before I had moved on

I am a leaf slowly growing from the family tree.

- Inspired by George Ella Lyon