“Where I’m From” Digital Story.
Where I’m From
By Greg Keehn
I am from five channel land,
From a time and place called the 70’s.
I am from the region with mills and toxic spills.
I am from the water in Burn’s Ditch.
(Dark, complex, and somewhat merky.)
I am from the county line
the road that divides my homes, the one child
and other adult.
I am from A&P, Tittles, and Topps
with bottle caps, T.V. dinners,
and baseball trading cards
that made who I am today.
I am from Captain Crunch,
And Burger Chef, from G.I. Joes
and from Matchbox Cars,
from pop culture and American Bandstand.
I am from steel mills, my mom and dad’s bills,
and the Tennessee hills
with hillbilly grit and
an immigrant’s drive.
I am from the mill dust, the sand dunes, and the grime
lifted up by my grand pappy’s crane to live in my towns
that lie east of my birthplace, my mother, my provider:
Gary, Indiana, the somewhere at end of my grandparents’ rainbow.