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The Poetic Word

Gentrifications

BY GLORIA O’KOYE

Gradually replacing glass windows 

Over mosaic bricks to make it 

More, ‘presentable’

 

Declaring 

It’s a stepping-stone for greatness

When it’s a demolition of 

Generational footprints 

To make properties 

Become more ‘marketable’

 

Each monument that shines bright with the nation,

And sub-culture 

May be tainted with some flaws

But doesn’t every famous structure 

Have hidden secrets

That is revealed after centuries

Decades 

Years 

Had passed on?

 

Gardens thriving in communities 

Are being take down 

After awhile

 

Delicacies

Across the globe,

Getting shut down,

Replaced 

With chained frauds

 

Sold families dreams 

Without inclusion

The root of evil is seeped into their eyes

 

Displacing 

Displaced folks 

In different intersections

Disregarding the impact

Of mixing up postal codes

 

Is it better to say?

‘Get out!’

Than to passively 

Raise the costs

For unwanted kind to move out?

 

Attracting a type of class and up

Heap of assets on the front porch

Was it really worth?

Selling out?

Is the outcome?

Really worth 

Pursuing the cause? 

 

Colonization

Never died out.

It only evolved! 

 

Mastered in the craft 

Of shape-shifting

 

We must outrun 

To win 

And never let them 

Catch up at all!

 

No more 

Switching up the game plan 

Without acknowledgements

Partake and demand

Everyone be part of it! 

 

We must stand up,

And defend

They 

WILL 

NOT

TAKE

UP

ANYMORE!

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