Where I'm From #170
by Meg Kissinger
Inspired by George Ella Lyon
I am from plaid kilts
From bowls of Cream of Wheat cereal with rubbery crusts and juicy IPAs
I am from the white stucco prairie-style house on the red-brick street with piles of shoes stacked
up at the front door (smelly old flip-flops, wingtips, saddle shoes)
I am from the glistening shores of Lake Michigan where I bob on hot summer days and the
darkest coldest morning in January
I am from grabbing the biggest piece of roast on the plate and imitating the lady in Grandma’s
nursing who screams “Please help me!” From her room down the hall.
From Yygor and Francis the Talking Mule
I am from inviting the stranger who has no place to go for Thanksgiving dinner and wiffle ball
games at dusk
from “Quit your bellyaching there are starving children in India” and “shut your mouth, Meg,
you’ll catch flies”
I’m from crucifixes on my parent’s bedroom wall and chocolate donuts after morning Mass
during Lent
I’m from Chicago’s North Shore, more Irish than German, so I’m never sure if I should have
another beer or mop the floor.
I’m from boxed mashed potatoes that my mother made because she was too tired to boil her
own and boxes of Christmas candy with a bite out of each from a brother or sister who decided
not to eat that one after all
From the gas station where my older brother Jake sat on the counter waiting for us to return to
fetch him after my mother miscounted how many of us piled back into the station wagon on our
way home from a ski trip in northern Wisconsin
The overstuffed easy chair where my husband Larry found me crying because I was bald and
scared of dying.
The family collage with the dime store frame that I made when I was in high school and was
grounded for having a party when my parents were out
The dead ones stare out at me from the glass and take me back to them.
Thank you Meg, for your beautiful poem, and our conversation about mental illness and boundaries and how grateful we are to have language to talk about all the particulars of being alive that we didn't have access to in our young lives. Language, conversation and community are life changing!