Where I’m From #5
By Aimee Seiff Christian
Inspired by George Ella Lyon
I believed I was from nowhere.
I knew I had to be from somewhere
Yet I didn’t believe that until I had proof because
I didn’t know you could be from nowhere and somewhere at the same time
I am also of somewhere. Someone.
I am from subways and sidewalks
From the city that never sleeps.
Gritty, overcrowded, noisy
And wonderful.
I am from pigeons and sparrows
Eating from garbage cans and twittering on telephone wire.
I am from bagels and matzoh brei and my mother’s handmade menorah
From no and because I said so
And you have to learn to play by yourself.
I’m from an innate understanding that I didn’t belong
And the explicit instruction not to ask questions.
I’m from New York Jews
Who were as Jewish as The New York Times and maybe Rosh Hashanah
But not fasting on Yom Kippur or keeping kosher or actually believing in G-d.
I’m 99.9% Northern European, only 26% of which, as it turns out,
Is Ashkenazi Jew after all
Times or no Times.
But it still counts and I am still Jewish.
I am a New Yorker through and through, city born and bred
But if I admit I learned I was actually born on Long Island does it still count?
I am an only child
But if I admit I learned I have four siblings,
Though all of them are half
And none of them talks to me except for one,
Does it still count?
I am born of a teenager and immediately abandoned
Against her will
And mine,
Only to be placed six months later
In the arms of a woman twice her age, with
Nothing but blank space where her heart and her womb were supposed to be
Where a baby did not grow.
She is my mother.
(I am not from there.)
But over the years, we have become of one another
I love my mother
And I know now that she loves me too.
I am not from her
But I exist nearby her
From somewhere else
From someone else
But we are closer now
Closer than I ever thought possible.
I am from learning and growth.
Where to find Aimee:
Website: https://www.aimeechristian.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewriteaimee
Substack: https://aimeechristian.substack.com/
Where to find Alyson:
Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com
Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/
