Where I'm From

By Samantha White, Age 16

Inspired by the October '07 Memoir Workshop, "Breasts"

 
I’m from the place of oodles
The place of Skelly courts and handball
Basketball sounds are my alarm clock
The police are the snooze button
RnB rap reggae and soca dress me in the morning.
Manhattan skylines are out my window—
Close as if I can touch them in the morning as the sun rises over the buildings.
Walking into the kitchen, I see walls that reflect every house in the building
I smell bacon emerging from the microwave, as I look into the home of Kool-Aid
I enter the living room of generations to blast the same song that echoes through everyone’s ears in every house
I walk back into my kitchen and look back in my fridge as if hoping to see something new.
I leave my house and get in the elevator with each floor bringing a different smell
Fried chicken, curry, ribs, fish, macaroni and cheese…so many
Step out a broken metal door with a magnet that doesn’t work.
See the area that looks like a mini family reunion
Little kids running around. Parents yelling to get their point across.
Older kids running, police following. Onlookers being nosy.
See the same group of people that you hang out with every so often.
It’s night time and you feel the wind picking up
You watch those sexy figures pushing and shoving, playing basketball.
Well, some sexy and some you just wonder why. Can’t help it
You feel the vibrations in the air from all the moving on the ground.
You hear echoes of a fight breaking out
Already expecting to hear rings in your ear.
Just move to the next basketball court or sneak in and out of the fight area
Whichever happens you still get a good show.
Meet up with your friends, hang out some more.
Get tired, split your ways and go in the house
The window becomes your eyes and ears to the live hood
Whatever happens happens and you go to sleep to wake up and do it again.

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