Day 25: a poem

Okanagan Lake

globalnews.ca

I come from a line of strong women

with hard lives,

from a house stale with cigarette smoke 

and booze in the bottom of the glasses.

I come from poverty and longing

for an ordered existence, 

for fresh frilly curtains,

for Normal,

from milk bottles on other peoples' doorsteps

that brought me to tears

on the way to school in the mornings,

a desire for Home bred bone-deep,

that has lasted all my life,

experienced but thrice.

I come from apple blossoms 

and weeping willow,

lake whisperings and 

peony-scented summer evenings,

music and dreams and a hope so bright

it kept me moving forward 

through the pain

of outgrowing my beginnings

into that shining Tomorrow

that was

the carrot of my youth.

for Susie's prompt at Real Toads: Where Do I Come From? Day 25