Where I'm From by Karina Ortiz

I’m from missing the salt you don’t realize is there.

I’m from sun and breeze,

where the weather’s always clear,

From the ocean,

People chatting and waves waving.

From blue, green, and yellow in every sight I see.

From beaches full of soft grains slipping through my toes.

I am from the salt water I walk in that moves me as I stand still.

The cold against my skin as the sun beats down on me

From feeling like I’m floating as the tide pulls the water back in.

From my feet being buried in the wet sand with every wave.

The rocky waters that I step over,

Every hard piece of earth covered slightly in green moss,

It looks so clean, so fulfilling.

No bugs to be seen, only wings living in the sky.

The chirps and the flashes as they fly by, blue on either side of them.

I’m from water pulling sea creatures in, silent and curious about what the ground offers.

Salt, salt, salt.

It’s all I smell, all I taste,

Nothing compares to something so fresh.

I’m from the terrifying unknown that feels so free.

It was a life so long ago, yet I feel it flowing through my veins.

From the silent life all around me.

I’m from the salt in the air.