from dirt 

I come from hills carpeted by grasses that danced

with winds ancient and pure

I come from a sky that pierced infinity

and left us small in our existence

I come from a cold

that the walls of our houses strained to hold out

as we huddled inside

we left the spirits of the dead to own the land once again

I come from a heat

that drove the reality of our flesh to the center of the soul

begging for the sun set and quiet the inferno

in our beds,  sweat still drenched our dreams

I come from fields

where the furrows folded in both seed and soul

I come from sunsets painted by the dust we stirred

I come from the wind and the plowshare

I come from the gravel roads and highways

that gave legs to my hunger

and those insatiable horizons

that left me with no way back home

I come from a street that housed both the dregs and angels

blindly discarded by apathy and surfeit

I come from the sidewalks

that shared both diamonds and hunger

I come from the cauldron that is we

I come from lives lived

I come from dust stirred

I come from dirt….