I am half known,
the spitting image of my mother
and the daily practice of
“so that’s where I get that from.”
I am stories passed down
from my grandmother
of cotton farms in Oklahoma.
But the other half.
The other half is open and empty and hollow.
I am the never-ending use
of the search bar
and how many different ways
can I ask this question.
I am the rabbit hole of records:
birth
marriage
birth
divorce
marriage
birth
divorce
military
arrest
marriage
birth
birth
death.
I am the monthly payment of $19.99
to recognize my father’s smile
in a middle school yearbook photo.
I am newspaper clippings
from small towns across America.
I am a “transient from Texas”
and a two-time bank robber.
I am other people’s searches
that lead me to
other sisters.
I am the report from the coroner’s office,
and the gap I can’t fill
between leaving and dying.
I am questions I could never ask my mother
and the discovery of a different last name.
I am the cancellation of service
and the frantic saving of documents.
I am the carefully chosen words
in a conversation full of silence.
has been a featured playwright and spoken word artist at various festivals and events in Los Angeles, Claremont, Durban, and Cape Town. She has a B.A. in Theatre Performance from Pitzer College and an M.F.A in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from the University of Texas at Austin. Her MFA thesis, “OUR Stories of L.A.: Youth Constructing Counter-Narratives through Devised Performance,” received the top thesis award at the University of Texas at Austin and a national research award from the American Alliance for Theatre Education (AATE). Megan currently lives in Los Angeles where she is the Associate Education Director for a global civil rights organization.
