Nisha Mody

Eileen Drennen

Where I'm From #40 By Eileen Drennen Inspired by George Ella Lyon I am from books shelved floor-to-ceiling, reading for hours  and making notes in the margins.  From crunchy buttered hard rolls and good Jewish rye, Tea with cream and sugar and jugs of Gallo wine. I’m from the three-story Victorian bought for a song,  From Lemon Pledge and orange Formica, Stained glass laughter and door-slammed tears.   I’m from Lily of the Valley and velvet moss,  From purple lilac bouquets and copper beeches to climb. I’m from “you kids are skating on thin ice” and “I love you more” From hand-me-downs and kitchen sink perms,  From “Daddy didn’t mean what he said” and “Mommy’s in the hospital again.” I’m from blue chlorine summers and icy snow-fort winters,  From Mozart and Motown, ballads and the Beatles. I’m from D.A. and M. Eileen, typewriters and syllabi,  leather missals and rosaries. From know-it-alls and bleeding hearts,  Dreaming of one life while living another. I’m from crisp Holy Communion dresses and fish sticks on Fridays. From Queens and Manhattan and a string of Hudson River towns; From Connollys and Reids, Kearneys and Carews. I’m from lucky stones in pocketbooks and wishbones on windowsills. From the legs my mother can’t trust and the stack my father blows and blows and blows. I’m from tin boxes of studio portraits and snapshots from Ireland,  From pictures of my parents as babies, and teens. And the one and only photograph of my family all together On Prince Edward Island, in 1964.  I’m from the eight-year-old in pigtails with a brother who’s six,  From sisters who are 2 and 10 and 11 and 12. I’m from the smiling Dad who orchestrated our only vacation And the Mom who, years later, made sure we each had a copy, To remember where we’re from. Where to find Eileen: Website: https://www.eileendrennen.com/ [https://www.eileendrennen.com/] Where to find Alyson: Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com [https://www.alysonshelton.com] Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/ [https://whereimfrom.substack.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/ [https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/]

Kassie J. Runyan

Where I'm From #39 By Kassie J. Runyan Inspired by George Ella Lyon I am from a child’s dream Formed of stars and sheep I am from yesterday’s home Always changing, painting patterns on the wall, And smelling like lavender I am from the dirt in the ground As it runs through my fingers And I imagine what it will grow I am from music being sung in every room From the lips of my mother and father I am formed by dancing in the living room And dreaming through the words of the storybooks From the whisper that I can be who I was meant to be And create my own future I am from a realist and a dreamer, Given a foot in both worlds I am from gypsies living under the stars And the worn hands of farmers far from home I am from names written in worn out letters On pages cut from old newspapers And hidden in a record player That travels from home to home I am from a line on a tree That grew for years Each leaf impacting the life I would dream All those years ago Where to find Kassie: Website: https://www.kassiejrunyan.com/ [https://www.kassiejrunyan.com/] Where to find Alyson: Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com [https://www.alysonshelton.com] Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/ [https://whereimfrom.substack.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/ [https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/]

Kim Rowe

Where I’m From #38 By Kim Rowe Inspired by George Ella Lyon I’m from window air conditioners, from Happy Meals and Rainbow Brite. I’m from the hills in every direction. (Verdant, rolling, a compromise between the jutting, coal-rich Appalachias to the Southwest and the horizontal, swampy farmland of Jersey to the Northeast.) I’m from the peonie bush the persimmon tree whose fruit I loved because I loved my grandpop. I’m from homemade cherry pie and arms heavy with shopping bags from Saturday at the mall, from Alberta and Clayton. I’m from the bursting laughter and the rage on the road, from you’re smarter than the average bear only child expectations and sliced onions in your socks for a fever. I’m from As I lay me down to sleep grace, even out to eat, and the pettiness of sin and a vindictive God. I’m from Goulds and Smith Holler, sausage gravy breakfasts and Old Bay dusted blue crab afternoons. From dinners by dad at 5pm sharp after construction work, From a 90s woman in a hungry corporate world. In my mom’s highboy dresser there were stacks of important papers, among them my certificate of birth, race marked as black, though my hair and skin could only partially succeed, even in the height of summer’s humidity and melanin’s rise. All these disparities, negotiated in dreams before my flesh came to be. I am from those moments of compromise, of the north and the south, Black and White and the family tree. Where to find Alyson: Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com [https://www.alysonshelton.com] Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/ [https://whereimfrom.substack.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/ [https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/]

Nisha Mody

Where I’m From #37 By Nisha Mody Inspired by George Ella Lyon I am from hair oil, from Amla and coconut. I am from the carpet beneath my mom’s bed where I sat as my mom applied it on my hair. (oatmeal colored, burbur, unforgiving) I am from the bouganvillea magenta, my mom’s dream flower, also known as the paper flower which I just learned is edible. I'm from snacky dinners and anxiety, from Nalini and Himat. I'm from the criticisms and act like nothing happened, from You don’t listen! and No! I'm from Jai Shree Krishna which you better say before you hang up the phone. I'm from Arlington Heights and the Mody’s and Sheth’s, tomato gantya nu shak and cha. From the drive home from Devon Street aka Little India in Chicago where my mom got excited seeing a sign at a produce market advertising lychees on sale for 1.49 so when we went in searching and searching, only for me to realize that the sign said “leche” and we were in a Mexican produce market. Where to find Nisha: Website: https://www.nishaland.com/ [https://www.nishaland.com/] Where to find Alyson: Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com [https://www.alysonshelton.com] Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/ [https://whereimfrom.substack.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/ [https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/]

Tria Wen

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/ [https://www.triawen.com/] Where to find Alyson: Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com [https://www.alysonshelton.com] Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/ [https://whereimfrom.substack.com/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/ [https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/]