AJ

I am from worlds behind windows and TV screensFrom Englewood and Elmwood City and afterschool neighborkid adventures.

I am from reading time imagination.

I am from suburban parks and nature trails, fear of the buzzing wildgrasses, and pavilions in stormtime.

I am from basements in progress and Kiddie Land trips, And from Old Westerns and Bill Withers lyrics.

I am from Chicago

And I am from Mercy.

From Kingsford coals and pots on the stove

From music and melody

I am from grace.

Well Mom, since you asked, I’ll tell you why I’m so rebellious…

Cuz you taught be how to be comfortable with my own decisions

How to think, how to choose, how to laugh off mistakes and keep going

I learned from you by listening, and more importantly, watching,

And I saw how to hold my head high and know I matter. So every time you experience this so called rebelliousness, know that it is your own teaching coming back to yourself, declaring that my voice has authority my life has dignity and holding firm to the commitment that I will honor the inner me

Calling to my ancestors-who show a way… Roaring to break the silence, and light the way Those who can share guidance, wisdom, protections

Because they’ve travelled this world with similar characteristics

From a kindred lineage

I’d wanna hear what they’d say Distant, yet on a parallel plane

A missing plank in the floorboard, A secret stowaway place for dreams

And winged things with no place to land

Untie from the grip of dichotomy

Push pull, us them, have lack mentalities

Untether

And restart from the beginning of imagination

There’s an anchoring effect

Where suggestions plant the standard, everything else mere deviations of the original,

Weighed down by primal suggestion

This body seeks

My soul breathes

Spirit…

Reflected in nature, chemical reaction, allegory, That which calls us

To be realized in its purity and worldliness at once