Friday, August 15, 2025

going back where I came from

I could  lose  myself 
in much lonelier ways 
wandering on between 
no and now and nowhere

but then you tell me to go 
back where I came from 
I understand your animus
curled tight like my fist  

but I pretend confusion
& enact comic indecision:
all the way back to heaven
or just up my mom's vagina?
________________________________
Pic: Baker Woods looking magnificent. Walk with L.

4 comments:

Nicole said...

I think the answer is definitely up your mom's vagina. IMAGINE.

Gillian said...

Funny.

J said...

LOL!!! So awesome.

Way back when Ted and I were dating, we were perusing the shops on Haight Street in San Francisco. We stopped in a cool little store with an Indian owner, and Ted bought some boots. The man asked him what part of India he was from, and he said he had never been. Born in Canada, parents from South America, India was several generations back. The man said, haughtily, “You are not Indian.”

Not 5 minutes later, a homeless man asked for some money. Ted said he didn’t have any, and the man said, angrily, “Go back to India!”

I turned to Ted and said, “Honey, you can’t win!”

Nance said...

The second stanza is excellent in showing the pull between grace and anger.

I love the last stanza, how it reminds the antagonist where they think we ALL came from in the first place--hey, remember your Christian Values? And then absurdly reminds them that we are all humans and got here in the same way, after all.

a season of goodbye

We drop Nu off at college on Wednesday--that's coming up fast! I'm fueled by excitement for Nu and an ever-expanding to-do list befo...