Where I’m from (Ariel)

I am from coffee mugs.

From Counter Culture and organic valley. 

I am from the stifling warm wafting steam.

I am from lentils soaked overnight. 

I’m from cheese in Christmas stockings and prudishness. 

I am from Amelia and Kék.

I’m from weak chins and knees.

I’m from hats inside in the winter and painstakingly reused wrapping paper.

I’m from Unitarianism and latent, secular Judaism.

I’m from German guilt and displaced Jews. 

Marzipan and schlagsahne. 

From the Chinese restaurant in London, Ontario where I wrote my first poem with my grandfather (“Rice is nice”),

the Golden Dragon and many meals there with my grandmother,

the photography albums my young grandmother assembled with pictures of herself and her childhood cats,

history piled and basement musty.