Where

By Luca Sabine Bernstein

We all come from somewhere, but that doesn’t mean we all belong somewhere. It took me a while to learn where I’m from, so now it’s time to learn where I belong.

I am from pleases and thank yous, customs I’ve taken too far.

I am my anxious Mothers’ greatest joy
and my Father’s biggest mistake

I’m from denial of who I am

And generations of pain.
I am from omens as truth
And moons that give me power,
From sunset to sunrise

I am from arrested stalkers.
4 charges to go
from freedom to fear.

I’m from letting it be
and never giving up.

I am from unspoken perfumes
And divorced parents

Broken families
but powerful Women

I am from notes that my voice couldn’t say
I am from wanting to run away.

But staying

Staying stuck

in a mediator’s office
holding it in.
I am from not crying,
from being what I thought strong was.
I’m grown, from growing up too fast.

And having been forced to give second chances, and thirds.
And from wanting to end on happiness,
when the end is nowhere near.

Girls Write Now On the Other Side of Everything: The 2023 Anthology

Do you know what it’s like to communicate with your family across a salty ocean’s divide? Do you want the sun and moon to enter your home with stories written in embers? Do you seek voices that will punctuate the darkness? Welcome to the other side of everything. It’s the other side of silence, the other side of childhood, the other side of hate, the other side of indifference, it’s the other side of sides, where the binary breaks down. It’s a new paradigm, a destination, a different perspective, a mindset, a state of openness, the space between the endless folds in your forehead, hopes for tomorrow, and reflections on the past. This anthology of diverse voices is an everything bagel of literary genres and love songs, secrets whispered in the dark of night, conversations held with ancestors under the sea. 

READ ON THE OTHER SIDE

VISIT ANTHOLOGY LIBRARY

Process

Where I come from is something I think about a lot. I don’t remember exactly when and where I first started this poem, maybe it was in English class or maybe I wrote a line and it continued on. But I found this poem in the Notes app on my phone, half-done, and I really loved it so I rewrote it in my notebook, and have gone back to it countless times over the years. It still doesn’t feel finished, and maybe it never will. As I’m growing older, I’m learning more and more about where I’m from. I’m learning that where I’m from has a strong connection to where I belong, but that is still undiscovered.