I Am From — A poem

I am from the long answer to the question where are you from.
I am from moving from New Jersey, to Fort Lauderdale, to Syracuse to Los Angeles.
I am definitively from Los Angeles.

I am from the view of the mountains that catch fire
I am from the flames that never reach my house
I am from the earth that shakes just to remind me it’s in charge.

I am from used to go fishing on the Erie Canal to
weeping when I see a fish’s face.

I am from the new golden age of teevee

I am from not drinking for thirty years for no particular reason
to exploring the artistry of a well stocked liquor cabinet.

I am from my mother smoked while she was pregnant and
I got to join the world six weeks early because of it.

I am from skipping Sunday school one year to
being called a Jewish Zealot a couple decades later.

I am from Cheese, the stinkier the better.
I am from cats, the more the merrier.
I am from poetry.

I am from realizing at thirteen all I needed was love
I am from finding that love long after I was thirteen
and never letting go.
I’m from never letting go.

Los Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 25 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express” (Poems written in Japan – Ain’t Got No Press, August 2020) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.