I come from bagels and lox
\nOn a Sunday morning
\nCream cheese and tomato
\nMilk and strong coffee
\nThe New York Times
\nA thousand sections
\nScattered over the dining room table
\nTime enough to read
\nAnd warm our skin in the glow of each others quiet company<\/p>\n
I come from the best\u2026
\nDoctors in NYC
\nExperts in neuroscience, psychology, physics, international relations
\nComparative literature, 19th century American woman naturalists
\nYou name it
\nWe at the top of the game it
\nIntellectual Brahmin feasting on the choice cut meat of our superiority<\/p>\n
I come from the children of accountants and middle management
\nDental hygienists and real estate agents
\nPencil pushers and line totters
\nBuying Buicks and ranch houses
\nFilled with Wall-to-wall carpeting
\nplastic wrapped sofas
\nColor TVs
\nKnick-knacks, bric-a-brac, and the mass-produced hallmarks of the middle class<\/p>\n
I come from the grandchildren of tailors and shopkeepers
\nDeli owners and hide tanners
\nLeave your name at Ellis Island but keep the noodle kugel and Yiddish inflections
\nSoldiers
\nDoor-to-door salesmen wearing down the soles of ill-fitting shoes
\nOur legs, backs, and necks
\n–not for us, but for our children–
\nUntil our bodies are one giant patchwork of complaints
\nBuckled and retired
\nDuty served<\/p>\n
I come from the descendants of shtetl peasants
\nSerfs
\nNon-landowners
\nBroken nails on dirty fingers
\nTradition
\nPogroms
\nMistrust and fear
\nInsular and complete
\nFucking at the pace of klezmer
\nDancing between birthing and burying our children
\nRussia is a cold, hard land<\/p>\n
I come from Act Up and Queer Nation
\nPotlucks and consciousness raising circles
\nHouse music and platform shoes
\nBay Windows and Seattle Gay News
\nProvincetown
\nEmpty closets
\nThe smell of something new<\/p>\n
I come from, \u201cbut wait, there\u2019s more\u201d
\nDeeper kept secrets marked never to be released
\nSlipping out of the loosening grip of my mortality in thirty year old hands
\nWebsites poured over and studied like holy, gnostic scrolls in the early morning -glow of sleepless nights
\nCaches wiped clean<\/p>\n
I come from Citizens Campaign for the Environment
\nJobs with Justice
\nThe Democratic Socialists
\nGender Justice League
\nStudent-labor conferences full of plaid shirts, corduroy, and fisherman\u2019s sweaters
\nEntranceways and atriums lined with the heartfelt and dedicated
\nOffering partisan papers, C\u00c3\u00a9sar Chavez retrospectives and books by Mumia Abu Jamal<\/p>\n
I come from shitty temp jobs
\n6am alarms
\nMugs full of burnt coffee
\nStanding on a crowded bus swaying to the rhythm of traffic lights
\nEveryone\u2019s got their cell phone out
\nBreakroom refrigerators full of diet sodas and orphaned paper bags
\nDesks littered with spreadsheets, meeting notes, and memorandum
\nPicking up where you left off
\nAnd watching the minute hand crawl across the mean white surface of 8 long hours<\/p>\n
I come from too sick to work
\nBright neon lights
\nAir-conditioned rooms in hospital gowns
\nSpecialists
\nThrobbing, nausea
\npushing through the pain until you just…can’t…push…
\nGiving in
\nMigraine brain
\nWhere am I going?
\nWhat was I just thinking?
\nWhy do I have these keys in my hand?
\nI come from no escape<\/p>\n
I come from the classroom
\nI come from the kitchen
\nI come from the houses of friends
\nI come from the garden
\nI come from the ocean
\nI come from in-between the tides
\nI come from the noon daylight and star strung quiet night
\nI come from the sound of snow falling on leaves
\nI come from the hardworking, lazy summer days
\nI come from the heart of the suburbs
\nI come from the back, outcast
\nI come from love
\nTouching your skin and feeling electric<\/p>\n
I come from bagels and lox
\nOn a Sunday morning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I come from bagels and lox On a Sunday morning Cream cheese and tomato Milk and strong coffee The New York Times A thousand sections Scattered over the dining room table Time enough to read And warm our skin in the glow of each others quiet company I come from the best\u2026 Doctors in NYC […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freaksoftechnology.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}