Inspired by the ‘Housing the Future Disruptive Futures Dialogue’ (Santa Fe, NM).
“The first tool of colonialism is to set fire to your farms and displace you from your home(land). -Beata Tsosie-Pena
When you live off the land,
displacement
feels like an asthma attack.
New air feels foreign
as fingers
wrapped ’round our lungs,
our land.
Our history
keeps forclosing on us,
keeps re-evicting itself.
Keeps out housing those
who live like us.
Keeps slave quartering folk
who look like us.
Keeps Indian Schooling our children.
Keeps forcibly removing us
from our homelands,
only to turn around and have the nerve to say
“home ownership is the path to wealth…
and equity
is the American Dream.”
Like…
Mama ain’t the original mobile home,
9 months of temporary housing
a room in every womb.
Like…
that ain’t growth too.
Like development
is new.
Like…
there ain’t a full on fireplace
in every single one of our hearts
insufficient to weather winter
this many feet above minimum wage.
Like…
it’s mad cool to live in a neighborhood with street art
as long as the hood ain’t home
to street artists.
Like…
Surplus inventory isn’t an insult.
And market “share”
isn’t a bold faced lie.
Like…
property values
are the same thing as having values.
Like…
a second home
is more American
than a second chance.
Like…
we haven’t closed the door
on our humanity.
Like…
those same four walls
that shelter your body
are enough to protect your soul.
Like housing “security”
means the same thing to everyone.
Because one man’s piece of mind
is another man’s big ass fence,
while one man’s piece of property
is another man’s rent.
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“If we tell incomplete stories about what’s at stake and what the problem is, we will have incomplete solutions.”
-Charlene Carruthers
Learn more about Hakim Bellamy here: http://www.beyondpoetryink.com/