A queens notes on life in Detroit.
The heart inside of you, is the same as mine.
But the blood that fills you is of a different kind.
There is something dark and ominous even though your fine.
It is just waiting for you, to pass some time.
Your tempting body is like fresh fruit upon on the vine.
A thing of lust that I wish to make mine.
Like the fresh fruit you will eventually meet your time.
As always the devil is in the details of this delicate design.
As much as I hate the term urban pioneer to describe anyone who chooses to live in a depressed urban environment in some ways it is completely acceptable and almost the truth. There are countless people who have not set foot in Detroit in years, and do not know what this place is anymore. They do not know what it has become both good and bad, they only have memories of what it was in their heyday. Like the person who views high school as they high point of their life they live in the past, never once seeing the true present, only something of a distorted image that the city is not how it was so it must be worse. To them anyone who chooses to live in the city is a pioneer of not an unexplored environment but more of a place that is lost in a fog of memories.
I say all of these thing because a few days ago I had a conversation at a gay bar, SOHO specifically, in which I spoke with an elder of the gay community. This man now in his seventies has seen the world change in ways that are hard to imagine without having lived through the things he has. He lived in Detroit and spoke of the days of the 1950’s and 60’s when “they gay community was in its prime in Detroit, yeah we were all quite, and the police raided the bars, but the city was vibrant.” Now to him the city is nothing more than a burden that hangs on the neck of the suburbs. All of my pointing out facts and figures could never change his opinion, for life and events of his time have created it. He is a product of a broken environment of stark back and fourth infighting where no one wins and we all lose.
Our conversation brought others into the fray as well. A young man of twenty five who grew up in the city and left for greener pastures in the cities of the “new South” also chimed in on how there is nothing good about Detroit. For it seems that people from the city are blinded by notions and events of the past even if they themselves never directly lived through it.
Ultimately I gave up trying to change anyones mind. Everyone agreed that I was just too young and had not lived in the city long enough to know its true reality. Yet just as to them things always stay the same to me things are always in a state of change. Primary elections where yesterday in the city, and a new slate of people have been picked for city council. Detroiters for Council By Districts turned in 37,000 signatures today more than the 29,000 required to put a ward system up to vote in November. And today the sun shined just as bright as ever in my corner of Detroit.
It is interesting how the sounds of my neighborhood have changed. From traffic to children. And how time spent on the back balcony can be the most stress reliving thing ever. I have to stop typing I am watching the fire flies at play.
So as I settle into my new neighborhood, the Uptown area, I find I am enjoying a new pace of life. The neighborhood is much slower than the comparative bustle of Midtown, of course this is minus the ice cream truck that drives by nine hundred times a day. Overall the neighborhood is peaceful and it has been a great decision to make the move. There are some interesting people about and the street wakers provide endless entertainment as they pass through my block, but overall life is relaxed and calm.
Also of note is the first Palmer Park Green Art Fair is this Sunday, from 2-7pm around the log cabin pond. The event will feature an Ecology Fair of 20+ environmental groups, Community Art Fair Entertainment of Gospel, Jazz, Blue Grass, Crab Grass, and Folk music, Children’s Arts and Crafts by ‘the Friends of the Belle Isle Aquarium’. Be sure to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy Palmer Park. The events is supported by The Friends of the Detroit River, WA3, Greenacres Woodward Civic Association, Palmer Woods Association, and University Commons Organization.
Saginaw Valley girls (a poem)…
I only had coffee and water for two weeks.
Eat anything… 30 carbs a weeks.
Walmart provides pretty healthy choices.
For what your body just won’t crave anymore.
Like.
Cookies.
Cake.
Bacon.
I wrap everything with it.
Salad with bar-b-q sauce all over it.
I like the food I eat.
I’ll just might turn into a giant block of cheese.
Just eat all the time… and you’ll lose weight.
This poem was inspired by a conversation at a Starbucks in Saginaw where the barista was explaining the virtues of the amazing Adkins Diet.
“This years fashions will never be here again. The colosseum will it has been around for thousands of years.”
A true expression of frustrations after looking at all the amazing things in Rome and just being on total overload.
Sorry for the long break on posts, I was having laptop issues which would not allow for readable typing.
Life is an adventure… and sometimes you get lost, find a bottle of wine, four gin and tonics, and a bottle of champagne.
