I am from

I am from bustling crowds and houses too close together,

seas of people swarming in

supermarkets, clothing stores, small local businesses.

busy town roads and clotted highways,

thousands of people going thousands of directions

each with their own life, their own story.

I am from stately houses and shiny cars,

primly manicured lawns and freshly painted fences;

gilded cages that mask the imperfections of life.

and the people in these cages are little more than puppets,

porcelain dolls in wooden dollhouses who

smile in one breath and sneer in the next.

I am from lavender walls and sunflowered bedspreads,

sunflowered pillows and sunflowered curtains,

windows overlooking those immaculate lawns

and shiny new cars and gilded cages,

windows I sat by each night.

I am made of those windows,

those lavender walls and sunflowered bedspreads;

symbols of my youth,

a distant corner of my childhood.

we are all little girls in beds of sunflowers

before we are porcelain dolls in gilded cages.

this is where I am from, but this is not who I am.