Where Are You From?

The question is getting nearer
It hasn't been asked yet, but
I know when it is spoken
I will cringe inside
I can't give you a street
Or a town or a country
I have a nationality
But I don't belong here
'So where are you from?'
'Oh, I've lived here eight years'
'And before that?' you ask
'Well, lot's of places really'
And as we go into it, my list,
My practised verse
I know you can't understand
You, with your friends from birth
Still round the corner, at the bar,
And your memories all on one map
And I am fiercely jealous.
I think about it, the right answer
To your question?

I think about the elephants
Chocolate brown
Textured like the outside of a coconut
Pinky-grey ears flip-flapping flies
And patient eyes behind giant eyelids
Pieces of jungle grew everywhere
Hung down around our house
A cobra fanning its neck wide and proud
Ringed by fire in the garden
A red ant army marching over my golden skin
Nipping bare flesh but ending in the banana tree
Papaya for breakfast from a row of trees
Carefully cultivated
Never a pineapple from the bush
Bougainvillea cerise surrounding
And monkeys on the school bus roof

A cat in the hat book
A red and white striped dress
And funshine bear on the yellow table
The magic bus was brown, no brakes
And had a hole in the floor
Gymnastics, swimming lessons, ewoks,
And long plane journeys to visit the cold
And grandparents
A climbing frame with monkey bars
Leaving Flopsy bunny at East Coast Parkway
Eating with sticks at Newton circus
French fries and mayonnaise at the Dutch Club
'I'm diving off the numbers mum!'
Rattan, raffia, ceiling fans and soap baskets
Holland Village in an icy taxi
The Botanical Gardens in the afternoon
With the baby in the buggy

Chocolate, a forbidden pleasure, precious, in the fridge
Always a rabbit at Easter
Care Bears, Cabbage Patches, Pound Puppies
Cartoons recorded and watched again and again
My golden girl dress, my curly bunches
Writing Chinese characters with ink and quill
The magic of the zoo
Orang utan breakfasts and sealion shows
Penang with Komodo dragons scuttling through shanty Georgetown
And the beach, sun, laughter, love
Bangkok in the water festival
Temples, tuk-tuks and umbrellas
Waiting for daddy to get home
Ex-patriot parties where friends were family

I long for my childhood
Close my eyes and breathe it in
It is me
Here I am
I am the elephant trek through Thai jungle
I have become the smell of pink hibiscus
I will always be that girl in the red striped dress
Smiling
Happy
Child of the sun
Feeling sand between my toes
My childhood is where I am from
I can give no fixed address
There is no place
Just this person
It's me
Who I am
And that is where I'm coming from.