Where I’m From

BY RICHENDA FAIRHURST

I am in Southern Oregon,
But I am from a long way from here
I come from Angles, Scots,
Britons, jutes,
A little Roma, a little Moor.

I was pried up
from where I was born
my footsteps are scattered
across nations—
across continents.

And now here. Oregon.
Jackson County. Rogue Valley.
The applegate.
Land of the Takelma.
Landscape of the Shasta.

A breadbasket. Pioneered,
log cut, farm cut land
bearded by forest,
planted with cannabis,
grapes, and pears.

I am from Southern Oregon.
A red heart district
with the water of the Rogue
and Umpqua rivers
as blue as anywhere
you’d find it.

My heart, my lungs expand
Breathing in the cool
autumn air,
and the smoke
and the ash
of 20 years of drought.