I’m From
Poem
By Victoria Ashleigh Rose
I’m From
Old schools with boys’ and girls’ sectors
and ghost stories in the basement.
I’m from gardens wedged between mansions and rivers,
hidden behind fences.
I’m from playgrounds outside backyards
and short walks home for lunch,
behind the girls who giggle and whisper about me
but never slow down.
I’m from long drives down unlit, snowscape roads
while other cars are pulled over.
You have my spare eyes to keep us safe, Dad.
Keep going.
I’m from new homes every half decade
because my mother can’t sit still
in a hapless marriage,
in a decaying economy,
because she doesn’t want her kids to learn
the feeling of downgrading
for as long as she can help it.
I’m from a downtown core
that never stopped feeling wider on the inside,
each time I step through a new door,
endless with possibility.
I’m from a lover’s hearth
that I curate with wood
so my own flame doesn’t burn.
I’m from a chain of fragile rooms
that have always contained me,
always asking me to watch
where my colours lick the walls,
so I don’t leave scorch marks.
I’m from campfires on beaches
and love letters on Tumblr
and sneaking out just to knock
on a window down the street.
I’m from scream-fights
over whether the misfit girl in my grade,
from a roughhouse family,
has a life worth saving.
I’m from the saviour complex
that runs bone-deep.
I’m from a place that celebrates poetry
on the front steps of churches and galleries,
where art and survival meet.
I’m from a world shaped by past change
and terrified of more.
I’m from a body that can’t sleep,
won’t sleep,
never sits still,
because there is so much I can never do,
so much I can never say,
so much that will never matter.
How am I meant to swallow it?
I’m from the change I believe in.
The voice that howls in my throat.
I’m from the dreams that build a family around me
poets and readers and lovers,
creators and people who care,
people who matter.
I’m from the future that rattles inside me,
summoning me piece by piece,
and the poems of my peers
that shake the stage we built together.
I’m from us.
This togetherness.
This unity.
I was born of it,
I breathe for it,
I write because of it.
I’m from the voice you give me,
the ears you lend me,
the trust you lead with.
This.
Is where I’m from.
