Detroit, you've put my stories on hold

EVERYONE TUNE INTO YOUR RADIOS:
I was chosen [in a contest] to read my poem Dear Detroit on Michigan Radio Station WDET Detroit Today. I've been writing poetry for a while, but journalism is my passion; I love to help people. And if I can inspire people by my stories... I'll do that too. Anything to make my mark on the world.
I submitted this poem a while ago, late by the way, and was just informed that they would like me to record me reading soon. :]
I can't stop smiling.

Here it is:

Dear Detroit—
Your crooked sidewalks birthed me
spitting me out in front of the postage-stamp
blue house, home to a grease-monkey,
a gilded hair street urchin. Never ready to make a family commitment.
Thumping bass and ambulance sirens
sang me lullabies only a child of yours would know.

You lifted me up on the bronze fist of Joe,
a Balduck baby and a Grosse Pointe school-girl;
I kept my heart with you, and my brain in another city.
It wasn’t infidelity.
You taught me how to pick raspberries in the alleys of your neighborhood,
how to double-dutch and season collard greens.

Your other children said I didn’t look like you
with my pale-skin and small-butt;
they threw rocks at me.
I’m the cream in your Oreo.

I thrived with you, Detroit, and when the fire
spat us out miles away from your embrace
I accepted it.

I will always be your daughter



XO XO,
K