Tell Me How Much You Love Your New Neighborhood

tell me how much you love your new neighborhood

the one that you gentrified.

the one you didn’t care about until you started sleeping over at your 1 AM fling’s.

yes, the one with the cute bodega, where you walk in with your headphones plugged in.

the one with the recently opened café where you flock to feel safe.

yes, the one with character, and eveything your family warned you against.

the one community members fight hard to maintain, the one that now pushes them to a lonesome place.

tell me how cool your neighborhood is, and how proud you are that you are surrounded by “others."

tell me how much you pay for rent, and tell me at what and whose expense.

tell me how beautiful your succulents are, how they contrast your walls, that will eventually fall.

tell me how much more space you have, and how little we have. how “having” and access is on top of your mind.

tell me why you love your new neighborhood. my neighborhood. the one that was mine.