Saving You

Today I can officially say that I am here to save you. You and I, we are going to become wonderful friends. Your weathered veins, cratered from the April rains. The paint chips flaking off from the dog days of summer. In the corners, nests from wildlife seeking shelter through bone chilling winters. You are man made but feel like a fresh hug from Mother Nature. Built for a purpose beyond the consumerism that is eating away at the earth today.

This town use to be so quaint. Everything seemed to slow down the second you passed the rivers bridge into downtown. I can call it a downtown when really it is four blocks in total. With having the river made it ideal for summer vacations since 1900’s for Cincinnati city dwellers. Being an old railroad town there was train tracks running right through the middle of town, which since has been turned into a bicycle path. This a bike path for the leisurely, completely flat and running right along the river bank doesn’t make one want to peddle fast and miss the view. With its curves and turns making it ideal for catfish holes. You can find a great fishing spot anywhere along the river as long as it’s accessible. The bicycle path was the main attraction in town for wanting to stop. The cobblestone sidewalks would chauffeur you around town. Arranged in different shades of red, guiding you storefront to storefront. I use to pass the most authentic little tea shop covered in bright vibrate wallpapers and little antique tea cups covered every inch of open space. It was bought out a few years back and now is home to a bistro less than half who use to live here are able to afford a table at. The old post office now holds a boutique shop, the ones that will tell you to shop local but buy all of their inventory from big distributaries instead of local artist and creators. I’ll never forget the day they painted to old post office. It’s beautiful yellow and orange brick that had stayed untouched since the day it was built, now a flat mat grey. It feels so dull, much like downtown does to me anymore. For people that didn’t visit this place before I’m sure it feels full of life, and maybe you can say that it is, but it’s not the life it use to live. It feels like taking a animal from the wild and putting into a zoo on display for human amusement. Not the vibrant life that use to feel like home, but something new.

With the changing of downtown, the change made its way out. Like disruptive tree roots weaving their way out, the change made its way out into the country. Farm after farm being bought. First they take the trees down, and the wildlife moves with it. Displacing deer, bunnies, mice, and even the wild barn cats that had lived in sets of woods for generations. Then just as easy as it is to copy and paste on a computer, they spit out miniature mansions into cookie cutter neighborhoods. As my mother would say, they built them so close together you could pass salt to your neighbor through your window. The repetition of color make it seem like a despotic wasteland compared to what use to be.

That is why winning the bidding war for you was so bittersweet. I couldn’t save this town from being consumed and overrun. But I got to save a sliver, and it’s my sliver. That is why you mean so much to me, and I am going to take such great care of you. You are going to be my slice of heaven that takes me back to my childhood and how this land use to be. There might only be a barn on this land, but it means much more to me than that. Today you are saving me, and I am saving you.