My face is a combination of all the faces of my ancestors. My mother's friend sliced some tomatoes for me when i was a kid, and I've loved tomatoes since then. I read Ulysses because my friend Yashmeen in tenth grade recommended the book to me. How wonderful it is to carry these signs of love, to be a mosaic of all the people and things I've known in my life.

"I am a whole made of fragments

Of places I've seen and people I know.

I'm a cup of coffee with no sugar, just cream.

I am a lamp left on but turned down low.

I exist to love and be loved.

I'm a little bit of him and her and you.

I'm a movie watched way too many times.

I am a list of things we have yet to do.

When I feel forgotten and alone,

All I have to do is look inside and see

Your name scribbled in permanent ink

And remember that I have pieces of you in me."