Where I’m From #36

By Tria Wen

Inspired by George Ella Lyon

I am from VHS tapes spooling to snow over time.

From Joni Mitchell’s Greatest Hits, and vinyl from 1966,

black as the soil in my parents’ garden.

I am from the ocean of my mother’s imagination:

a sea that is the sky, a sky that is the sea,

air savory with the salts of our next meal —

a wakeup from a dream.

I am from seeds scattered generations before me,

roots reaching across thresholds of death and new life.

I am from passing stories around the dinner table

and serving others before ourselves.

From Mommykins & Bopperoni, Jeejers & Erry Burry.

From expressing so much love through nicknames,

our given names became starlight

emitted only by those outside our constellation.

I’m from the fluff of cloud where I first saw my fam.

Floating in my mother’s space,

I swear I could hear her voice echo,

telling my sisters she was making someone

just for them.

I’m from beliefs in everything and nothing.

Certainty that we all must be at least a little wrong.

I’m from Washington, D.C., more or less 99% Chinese:

a bushel of summer crabs tumbled onto newspaper

not dry with Old Bay but drenched with ginger, soy, vinegar.

From the night two strangers talked until dawn,

and the days they filled with paper flocks of who they could be.

In the basement of my childhood home,

my fingers twist the dial of a time machine,

adjusting VCR’s fuzzy tracking.

For a few seconds, Mama laughs herself back to life,

waving among daffodils.

Her future, now past, is still ahead of her there.

The snow melts.

Reveals endless spring.

Where to find Tria:

Website: https://www.triawen.com/

Where to find Alyson:

Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com

Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/