2025/Aaliyah -

I am from The Old Line,

From the Busy Boardwalk and Steamy Clam Chowder.

I am from Chesapeake Bay under the Baltimore harbor.

It smelled like Purple Loosestrife.

I am from Little America,

The white Dandelions

Whose Black and Yellow Flag I remember

As if they were my own.

I am from G.I. and Embroidery,

From Hugh and Yasmin.

I am from locked red hair,

And the short brown hair,

From “Be quiet” and “Gabby.”

I am from lovely parents,

With two little sisters

And in ten minutes I can do things myself.

I’m from The Old Line and the Tar Heels,

The sagebrush and the Land of the Rising Sun.

From the friends lost to the moves,

To the black cage used to keep Ellie in.

Under my bed was a box spilling old purple stories,

A color set of oil pastels

To drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments -

Loved before I moved.

I am a leaf growing and sprouting from the family tree.

- Inspired by George Ella Lyon