Today, I am 37 years old.
	I am not 3.7 billion-year-old
		microscopic life
		from the primordial ooze
		in which life began.

 Today, I am just 37 years old.
	I am not 370 million year old
		Devonian fossil shells
		from an ancient sea
                that once covered this land.

 Today, I am 37 years old.
	I am not the 137,000 year old
		Illinois Glacier.
		A huge sheet of ice
		that scoured this
		piece of earth.

 Today, I am 37 years old.
	I am not even a 370 year old
		buffalo hide painting
		that tells the mythic tales
		of native people
		who hunted and fished 
		along the shores
		of this endless river.

 Today, “I” am 37 years old

 37 years ago
	the great mother
		gave birth to me.

 From her primordial ooze
	my life began,
 my bones made of ancient stones.
 She fed me from her fertile fields
	of glacial till and prairie grasses.

 I was given a buffalo heart
	of mythic tales.

			I am 37 years old, today.