Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh,

Welcome home. I'm Dr. Tama, a minister, licensed psychologist, and sacred artists.

And this is Homecoming, a podcast to facilitate your journey home to yourself.

While I will provide weekly inspiration and mental health tips, this

podcast is not a substitute for therapy. I'm so excited you're on the journey. If you

want to request specific topics or share your progress, email me at homecoming

podcast at gmail.com. Also after you listen, be sure to like, subscribe, and share. Let's begin.

Welcome home, co-journers. I'm glad you're here, and I have a poetry submission to share with you and those of you who are writing poems about your homecoming journey,

you can send them to me at homecoming podcast at gmail.com,

and today's poem is from Mickey Brown. Mickey is a visual artist and a poet and I love this piece so I'm excited to share with you Mickey's work and this piece is called Growth Spirts.

One day I won't need to remind myself to stand up straight. My chest will naturally look to the

pitch black crow on sky blue. My shoulders will settle into the earth of my bones.

My spine will turn into a spear of oba-siding

to protect me in the night already.

My feet are rooted more solidly to the planet, more immovable by the poison on their lips.

It helps that I've been stomping lately, stomping my bones into place, vertebrae into line already.

My hands are getting stronger. I had forgotten, strong hands look strong.

My palms are thicker and my fingers have extended, like my muscles had forgotten they could

come home. It helps that more has been asked of me. More and more rocks

added to my heart, but I have stood firm and held my heart high, high enough to touch the sun. I can tell that I've been getting

stronger, swelling to match the boundaries of the sky, taking pride in my loud feet in my huge hands, let me kick the

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