Love and Lollipops

{Reagan's Language Arts assignment: write a poem in the form of "Where I come from". We know where her talent comes from.}

Love and Lollipops
By Reagan Palmer (Period 6, 9/8/06)

I’m from sandy flip flops
From French Vanilla coffee and blonde curls
Collard greens and Claritin
I’m from a hall closet stacked high with shoes, dirt, and pine needles
The roar of jets and the stillness of “Taps”
From the southern buffet in little Cairo, Georgia

I’m from pot roast and bathing suits
Little Debbies, the soft skin on my sisters hands
From hot apple cider around of crackling camp fire
Carpools and pom-poms
I’m from this house in somewhere that was built too long ago

I’m from “cut it out” and “turn it in”
Jangling puppy tags
I’m from pepper sauce and lemon cake
Fried fish caught out by the dock
From golf balls and salt water
A tall green house that reached the sky when I was only two feet tall

I’m from strong arms in camouflage
And the crack of a door and jingling keys when “daddy’s home!”
From my mom humming softly as she bakes tonight’s chicken
I’m from Interstate 95 in various mini vans
(Fourteen hour car rides, and lots of granola bars)
I’m from sheet music that looked like a foreign language
And Seinfeld laughing it up in the background

I’m from “Almost turkey dinner” to “Follow the yellow brick road!”
Fried corn bread and reduced fat milk
From crayons that won’t stay in the lines
Ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookies

I’m from those moments
That we all have
That keep us in the past
But excite us for the future

I’m from love and laughter and lollipops
But most of all
I’m from a family that will always be there
In those moments