Where I'm From

It smells faintly of dawn dish soap and gain detergent when you walk through the door

My mom’s sweet pea and Paris Hilton perfume wafts through the air

Its scent so familiar I’d know it anywhere

I hear the soft rain of the shower running

Like the sounds of Niagara Falls…calming

 

My mom works as a massage therapist

Rubbing soothing lavender oils onto the skin of horrendous smelling people to make a living

She loves doing what she does but it tires her out

She has about 6 appointments a day

Some 90 minutes some 10

 

Lots of Kansas Citians gather in the plaza

Going to all the restaurants and flatters

Many young people hang at the movies

To check out the new wolverine packed with epic scenes

And mean killing machines like wolverine and his bone claws

To the Asian girl with the sick blade

And then there are the parks where the younger kids go to have fun

Climbing the jungle gym and screaming I'm the king of the world to the top of their little lungs

Running around with such energy that most older people wish they still had

Their eyes dancing with joy

They’re little bodies barely keeping up with their feet

 

The first time seeing my brothers name highlighting a place

The Adrian avenue sign always looked great

Going down prospect always had me wondering how many young people were going to have the same fate

Seeing the drug dealers and prostitutes roam prospect always made me mad

Those people could have done so much more with their lives but hey who I am I to judge what they have

Prairie view road was home to me for a while

Not that I saw it that way with the way I was treated every day

People over there were very judgmental of people and their color

How rich a person was, was what mattered in their town

I wanted to scream out f**k Parkville with all the depths of my soul

But that wouldn’t have changed the way I viewed the place I never called home

 

In the night the crickets sound their happy song

The trains blow their whistles in tune with the song of the night

Cars whizz fast and in a hurry to get somewhere through the Kansas City streets

The moon and stars greet you with a wink before you depart with the calming peace of sleep.