Other StreetWrites Writers
StreetWrites Survivor's Poems
Anitra's Home Page
Real Change Home Page
Speakeasy Home Page
My Grandfather's Eye
Mother Escapes
Mother of Dragons
Father's Day 1996
My Sister's Hands
Rescue
Gregor
My Father's Arms
Mother's Day 1999
Mother's Day 2000
Mother's Day in the Tents
Essays:
Parenting on the Edge
Imperfect Families in an Imperfect World
Related Pages:
My Personal Page
My Political Views
Bipolar Resources
Resources:
Turf:
a community for homeless youth and families
Links:Top Mom's Sites
Feminist Mother's Webring
What Is Family?
Family are the shouts in the dark that keep you awaketrying to be invisible under your blankets.
Family is the warm heart you run to
when everyone else at the rink skates too fast
and you've cut your knees on the ice.
Family are given to you at birth
with your eyes and lips and nose.
They will stick to you wherever you go
and shape how you see
and what you say
and how you are seen
forever.
Family are found new each day
wherever you put your heart last.
Family are the people you share bread with,
and whoever you share the lack of bread with.
Sometimes your family aren't people.
Family is whoever lives under the tent of your soul.
Your family can be as big as you are,
and from birth to death, your real, real family
are the ones who make you grow bigger.
- poem by Anitra L. Freeman from "Families of Poems"