Tiffany Babb

 Where I’m From #6By Tiffany BabbInspired by George Ella LyonI am from coffee groundsFrom cheap maple syrup and Lipton tea bagsI am from the place where spiders hidechaotic, loud-- where are you?I am from dandelion blossomsHeavy with pollen and waiting to travelI'm from celery and onions chopped so fine they're transparent, From Eloisa and ChuyiI'm from laughing too loud and loving too quietFrom "Close the gates so the wolf doesn't get in"and "Yo mama wears combat boots"I'm from creaking hymns playing on the radiolate into the night, sung by strange voices from another timeI'm from the dry dirt of Californiafrom airplanes and cars taking travelersto places they've never been before,new places, to start a lifeRich soup noodles, crumbly potato chip cookiesFrom the stealing of a cake from a wedding that had gone sourThe heavily permed hair of the eighties,aging photos kept in a cracking plastic binder of unremembered faces, documents that have lost their meaning.But we watch over them and preserve them, knowing that although the faces are unrememberedand the documents have lost their meaning, we cannot afford to lose more. Where to find Tiffany:Website: https://www.tiffanybabb.com/Where to find Alyson:Website: https://www.alysonshelton.comSubstack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/