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The Hood Isn’t Even Ours Anymore

by Kellen Gaither

We’re lost
we have no home
outsiders wherever we go.
America thinks we’re too African
Africa thinks we’re too American.
Where do we go?
To our ghetto inner cities
safe, familiar, cultured
our corner store, our mom-and-pop shops.
The buildings are run down and filled with graffiti
but they were ours
barbeques in the middle of the potholed roads.
The Wobble brings the neighborhood together
and the block party begins
but not for long.
The corner store is replaced by an art gallery
our beautiful graffiti stripped from the walls of our buildings
and changed into bougie apartments that we can’t afford
potholes only filled when people much whiter and much richer come around
police called when the block party reaches 5 people
the neighbors pushed out of their own hood
becoming lost once again.

 

Kellen Gaither – 2021 Featured Poet – is a junior from Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a psychology major with a minor in gender, sexuality, and women’s studies who is also working on her prerequisites for occupational therapy. Beautiful Black Boy, Businessman, Cantu Bantu, I Can Feel It, Not Allowed to Hurt, The Talk

Filed Under: 2021 Issue, Featured Poet: Kellen Gaither (2021), Poetry

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