2024/Sam-

I am from 100,000 glaciers

From glacier trekking and enormous ice fields.

I am from whale watching under the ocean

Brown bears wolves under the ocean, it tested like nature.

I am from the Northern Lights

The colorful bands that dance in the dark sky

Whose glimmer I remember

As if it were my own.

I'm from the Mother of States

From flowering dogwood and Mount Rogers.

I'm from the Appalachian Trail and the

Shenandoah

From sandy beaches and Blue Ridge Parkway

And ten salutes I can do myself.

I'm from archival records and indigenous.

From the voices lost

To the experience

Used to keep me happy.

Under my bed was a purple box

Spilling memories

A valley of dandelions

To drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments -

Washing my face before I go to sleep.