Vous venez d'où?
Yes, you.
Where are you from?
This may not be as facile
(easy) as you think
to answer.
You might be from Paris,
but that’s not what I’m asking.
What I really want to know is:
Snow or rain?
Sorrow or gain?
Nights without days
or days without nights?
Silence, or words?
Tea, coffee, reveries
on quiet mornings—
or, rather, walks in the woods?
Vous venez d’ou?
Sea. Cave. Heart of ruby?
If you would like,
I would like
you to tell me.
***
Really, you are invited beyond the poem. Come tell me if you’ve explored—or escaped to—a cave.
Or join our former Poet Laura to say, poetically, Where I’m From.
And if you enjoyed this casual audio, check out Pas du tout, where I read to you from my bench on the back porch, in the morning rain.
Photo by Oliver Cole, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.