I’m from an uneventful life,
Caring parents and a younger-but-stronger brother
and the relatives I see on holidays

A large and silent house next to the woods,
I am from deep winters and damp falls
to springs and summers that almost never came

I’m from trips to the library and trumpet lessons
rather than the green fields in which my brother and I sacrificed time for our parents
only to fail in the games

Snowy mountains, sandy beaches, and smelly cities
I am from all over the US
and the years we came back to a rentable northwoods cottage

I’m from childhood paranoia
Over-washed hands, haunted school bathrooms, the tornado that tore down my treehouse,
and a mother who thought I had a screw loose

The State Fair, state forests, and beaches
I am from Wisconsin’s most fun places
like the waterslide that my brother got stuck in somehow

I’m from a school that gave kids the sleep they needed
The kids, teachers, homework, video games and the cartoons after,
as well as the playground removed to make a boring grown-up parking lot.

Still going with the flow,
I am still from an uneventful past and present.
It is not worth writing a memoir, but the memories are still worth a poem.