The Anywhere-but-here Girl

I have always been taught,
a cultural osmosis beginning at birth,
to never get too attached
to anyone or anything.
I was told to stay on the move,
and always leave a suitcase packed,
to run,
far and fast,
to burn my bridges,
cut all my ties,
and never put down any roots.

I am nothing if not a good student.
I've learned my lessons.
I've etched them on my heart.
I have become the anywhere-but-here girl.
Restless.
Listless.
Aimless.
Lost.

I wrote the first iteration of this poem as part of an assignment in January of 2010. Every so often I come back to it, trying to hone it a little bit more each time. Rootlessness is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, so it seemed like an appropriate moment to pull it out again.

Make sanity a priority. Surround yourself with people who do the same. Stay inspired! Refill the well. Be a fan of artists whom you love! Remain a student always!

-- Leslie Odom, Jr., "We Are Not All Artists the Same"

No one can take in a building all at once. It's like when we take a photograph - we're looking at only a few things, half a dozen or even a dozen - and yet the photo records everything in our frame of vision. And it's those thousand other details that anchor us far below what we consciously see.

-- Anne Michaels, The Winter Vault