I am From Youth and Imaginative Adventure
I am from backyard barbeques and brambly branches
Where 27 neighborhood kids made their pirate ship
Imaginative and inventive, fake trees were my friends
From dangling rope swing to round red sandbox
Outdoors always held adventure
I am from Thanksgivings forty people full,
The Derryberry clan crowded with stories and laughter
Grandma’s green bean casserole and Ore’s Idaho potatoes
Grandpa’s cornbread that aged back to Arkansas days
I am from Christmas Eves in my aunt’s “magic basement”
Tinsel twinkling and snow scraping the window sill
Looking for Santa’s footprints on the roof in the morning.
I am from a line of independent and strong women
Enduring breast cancer, with surgery scars as the only remainder
My mom, my grandma, who taught me to embrace my youth
But never remain naïve – know the world, let the world know me
I am from a man who was not just a father, but a dad
My coach, my confidant, my consolation, my companion.
I am from hemp necklaces and pop tab earrings
Days of day camp counseling and Capture the Flag
Tie-dyed, tied to my twin, driving up to Twinsburg, Ohio.
Gold medal in our age category for the looks-alike contest
Sometimes I still answer to Julie, though no one in Georgia
Knows her as my twin or best friend.
I am from Orchard Park Knights, Blue Aces, and
The mighty Redhawk of Miami. Then Knights again
And now Lions, roaring blue pride in the class, on the grass
I am from students’ stories and questions that keep me up at night
Scarlet Letter projects and Song of Myself poems – words ringing
Long days in A114, teacher chats and lessons planned
I am from optimism, energy, and love
I am a compilation of all I have encountered
Shaped by experience, molded into me.
