Where I’m From (EC)

I am from the ink and grease of the equipment

Dirt and dead ants that clogged the plastic microjets of the irrigation system 

Thorny or mossy trees

Seeding grass (that gives me hives)

I am from We Don’t Do That and We Don’t Talk About That, either

“All the Christian women wanted pincurls in their hair”

We have photographs and old magazines 

Books from Miami-Dade community college, ca. 1970

The rabbi’s coming over for dinner

SLPs and IEPs

ESOL and VO-TECH 

Art for Art’s Sake 

Stuffed Cabbage 

I am Florida Water and Donald Duck orange juice

Ed was grandmaster of the Benjamin Franklin lodge

Lillian, the first butcheress initiated into the kosher butchers union

Bea was the leader of the Girl Scout Jamboree

married to Jules, the wine man, 

started in Mott Haven and ended in Winter Haven, FL

Where I’m from

Waterskiing capital of the world