“First Story” by Ileah Wright
January 25, 2024
I don’t quite know where I’m from
who I was, or what I did, but now
I am The One:
The Kid
The Mystery
The Storm
The Lightning
The Clouds
The Sun
The Moon
The Stars
The Luck
The Good
The Bad
The Sad
The Happy
The Tree
I’m Me
I don’t know who I was then,
but I do now. I am the one
with the magic. Powers
no one has once or twice
had before. I have none of it.
I have all of it. But it gets to me.
Who was I in the great before?
What was my first story?
This poem was written by Ileah Wright as a 6th grader at Washington Middle School with WITS writer-in-residence Brian Dang. Performed at the SAL J. Kenji Lopez-Alt Presents event with Deb Perelman on Thursday, January 25th, at Town Hall.unsp