Friday, March 23, 2018

SOLSC '18 Day Twenty-three: Roots

Daily, it seems
I hear "No Roots" on the radio.
(I thought the singer 
was Florence Welch;
Alice Merton is 
her vocal doppelganger,
at least in this song.)
Every time I hear it
I think of my fellow
Military BRATs.
We have no roots.
And then I think 
of the squirrels
who disrupt our routines,
burying pecans in my potted plants
and nesting in our resting car.
Will I remember 
where to find the stories of my youth?
Will the squirrels remember
the pecans before saplings take root?






6 comments:

  1. Interesting to think about. I grew up in a small town where I've spent most of my life. I often wonder what adventures I have missed. When I think about my roots, I think about the people who have been a part of my life --- especially the early part. As I think about it more, I guess it is a bit grounded in place. It must feel different to have moved a lot when young.

    Squirrels....they're a different problem (story).

    I've got to think a bit more about "will the squirrels remember the pecans before the saplings take root?."

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    1. My husband was born and raised in one place, as were our children; I'm the outlier in our little nuclear family. And I have a love-hate relationship with squirrels, after one lived in our house for five days while we were gone...

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  2. I love the play on roots & routines here. Brilliant. Also, I am a fellow military brat, but I'd never heard the song before. I clicked on it (despite your earworm warning)and, well, I won't forget it soon. :)

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    1. I know, right, Amanda? It is such an earworm! But an appropo theme song for our BRAT-ness, I think.

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  3. Love the symbolism and parallelism of your last four lines (2 questions).

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    1. Thank you, Alice! And the last line really is true these days, as I pull pecan saplings out of the potted plants that overwintered on our front porch....sigh.

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