dara.cv
09-06-2010, 11:31 PM
So I had to do a autobiographical poem for my English class. I revised tons, but still think something is kind of off. any input would be appreciated since this was my first assignment and very different for me.
Birth
I was born in August.
I was signed as legit, assigned a 9 digit number
and given a title to be called by.
That day I became a citizen of the North Charleston Naval Base,
territory to the United States of America.
Within its borders of the gaping Atlantic ocean,
The steely guard stop and the rusted wire fences
I was homed.
Play age
Throughout the 6 years we traveled,
We visited the bases of
Rhode Island, Virginia Beach, New York,
and New Jersey.
I played on blue gymnastic mats at the YMCA,
Stretches of beaches with buckets full of jellyfish,
Scolding hot metal merry go rounds that smelled of urine,
and alone in unnamed woods climbing tree branches.
Semi trucks always honk to children
in the back seat of a car moving cross country.
And as I waved goodbye to wherever I was coming from,
The road was my home.
Primary School Age
Settlement of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.
I picked the fruits from orchards,
sipped the nectar of honeysuckles,
and had snow fights in blizzards.
I became Catholic,
and went to a Catholic school.
I learned my neighbors by name,
but never got really attached for that fact.
I rode on the Gravitron at the
county fair every year.
My father retired
after 14 years of service to his country,
as well as to the 14 of the marriage to his wife.
I was substituted religion and community
in the place of unity and family.
5 years was long enough to settle,
but not enough to stay.
I could’ve, had my mother wanted me.
Preadolescence
The Wild Wild West, Albuquerque, NM.
My father was a shadow of himself,
lost in the loss of my mother.
And so my brother and I became lost,
Him into the depths of internal retreat and me into
external expanse of escape.
I explored this new world without boundaries.
Free from wired fences, guarded places,
neighbor’s watchful eyes, the nun’s piercing ones…..
The military, the civility, my family.
And in my teenage exuberance
I ran and ran and ran…..
Adolescence
The Streets of Arizona
I was the hippie joined in the revelry of Full Moon drum circles
accompanied by fire breathers, belly dancers, musicians, and performers.
I was the gypsy who lived in a remodeled 1969 bluebird,
my own caravan with cedar walls.
I was the vegan pro marijuana political activist,
pasting flyers to brick walls.
I was also
the raver dancing on rotted planks in broken down houses,
condemned, In Tucson.
and the beggar in downtown phoenix, not grateful and not ashamed.
I was the thief of Goodwill and gas stations
And girl who almost died 2 times, toes blue, lips cold,
licking the blood draining from my nose.
I was the clubber who got pregnant at 17.
Adulthood
My daughter changed my life, saved it.
Before her my life was directed
by the will of my parents, God, my peers, my circumstance.
Since that moment when I realized my life was no longer my own,
I Knew I had to create a home.
I had a reason, a motivation,
a tiny life wringing against the warmth of my body,
to start truly living.
Birth
I was born in August.
I was signed as legit, assigned a 9 digit number
and given a title to be called by.
That day I became a citizen of the North Charleston Naval Base,
territory to the United States of America.
Within its borders of the gaping Atlantic ocean,
The steely guard stop and the rusted wire fences
I was homed.
Play age
Throughout the 6 years we traveled,
We visited the bases of
Rhode Island, Virginia Beach, New York,
and New Jersey.
I played on blue gymnastic mats at the YMCA,
Stretches of beaches with buckets full of jellyfish,
Scolding hot metal merry go rounds that smelled of urine,
and alone in unnamed woods climbing tree branches.
Semi trucks always honk to children
in the back seat of a car moving cross country.
And as I waved goodbye to wherever I was coming from,
The road was my home.
Primary School Age
Settlement of Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.
I picked the fruits from orchards,
sipped the nectar of honeysuckles,
and had snow fights in blizzards.
I became Catholic,
and went to a Catholic school.
I learned my neighbors by name,
but never got really attached for that fact.
I rode on the Gravitron at the
county fair every year.
My father retired
after 14 years of service to his country,
as well as to the 14 of the marriage to his wife.
I was substituted religion and community
in the place of unity and family.
5 years was long enough to settle,
but not enough to stay.
I could’ve, had my mother wanted me.
Preadolescence
The Wild Wild West, Albuquerque, NM.
My father was a shadow of himself,
lost in the loss of my mother.
And so my brother and I became lost,
Him into the depths of internal retreat and me into
external expanse of escape.
I explored this new world without boundaries.
Free from wired fences, guarded places,
neighbor’s watchful eyes, the nun’s piercing ones…..
The military, the civility, my family.
And in my teenage exuberance
I ran and ran and ran…..
Adolescence
The Streets of Arizona
I was the hippie joined in the revelry of Full Moon drum circles
accompanied by fire breathers, belly dancers, musicians, and performers.
I was the gypsy who lived in a remodeled 1969 bluebird,
my own caravan with cedar walls.
I was the vegan pro marijuana political activist,
pasting flyers to brick walls.
I was also
the raver dancing on rotted planks in broken down houses,
condemned, In Tucson.
and the beggar in downtown phoenix, not grateful and not ashamed.
I was the thief of Goodwill and gas stations
And girl who almost died 2 times, toes blue, lips cold,
licking the blood draining from my nose.
I was the clubber who got pregnant at 17.
Adulthood
My daughter changed my life, saved it.
Before her my life was directed
by the will of my parents, God, my peers, my circumstance.
Since that moment when I realized my life was no longer my own,
I Knew I had to create a home.
I had a reason, a motivation,
a tiny life wringing against the warmth of my body,
to start truly living.