24Preface
Melia Snyder
Where I Am From
I am from milkweed
from monarchs and muscadine vines
I am from the leaf resting on a fall day
(red, maple
it sang of syrup)
I am from the Appalachian Trail,
the Boone Bowl
whose hemmed-in hollows hold me
as if I were her own
I’m from wild ponies and white-tailed deer
from hoot-owls and cackling crones
I’m from pink lady-slippers dancing to change
from root and rock
fed by the light of mica,
the detritus of earth and bone
Under these stones are stories
stitched now as contour lines
into the palm of my soulMy relationship to land and landscape began before my birth, with
grandparents and great-grandparents who sought fertile land to
farm amidst the Dustbowl and who crossed seas to escape famine.