I grew in warm soil,
tugged my roots from the sticky
earth and planted them in concert halls, watered
with dreams that aren’t mine.
I was born when I cried
over you in the pool and in the gardens,
beneath that weathered willow tapping its gentle fingers on my toes.
When I was born, I kissed
the stars in the night sky with my tiny lips. I try
to kiss them every night. I am born in the soft
rolling of the hills, the flower-dusted greenery that embraces
singing souls and plucks on the silent ones.
I am born each day when the sun ripens
on the trees and I breathe it sweetly,
sacredly, wholly into
my open mouth. One day I will have an answer.
By Miri Lauson, 18 years old
"I was inspired by those poems that talk about the different moments in your life that cause you to become a different person, a rebirth of sorts, and I wanted to try writing my own."