By Debra Dolan
PROMPT — Who am I today?
I am from an all-too-familiar book
From Penguin and Random House essayists, uncensored
I am from the unread pages on the upper shelves
wine-stained, barren, out-of-reach …
language too difficult to understand
I am from lust
bursting free of small-town restraints and boring Saturday afternoons
I'm from half-breeds and half-truths
From a young German girl and a French-Canadian man
I'm from the lonely and misunderstood
From the "I don't believe you" and "I hope you have a daughter just like you"
to those men that leave without saying goodbye
I'm from lapsed Catholics, sad souls
I'm from battlefields, bars, and mistaken identity
eating potato pancakes, sucking bourbon from a tit
From the cruelty of internal wars raging and longings to escape
No evidence, silent to the core
Debra Dolan lives on the west coast of Canada. An avid reader of women's memoir, feminist, solitary seeker, and private journaler for over 50 years. She is the author of two self-published books with limited print runs; "I want to remember and I want to be remembered."