What Is Illinois to Me

by Mya Watson-Blake

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Tall corn fields and rows of wheat,

Round-abouts and jungles full of concrete.

Cows munching on prairies and meadows,

Country boys chewing dip with their fellows.

Towns as white as snow

Especially the further south you go.

What is Illinois to me?

 

My birthplace, my hometown

Born in a city that has no sound

But the train that’s no longer around.

Military families come and go,

Except for mine who stayed for the show.

And it was I who was forced to grow old here

When really I’m just too scared to disappear.

Though my heart longs to wander

I can’t help but wonder

If I can really roam

Away from this place I call home.