Eviction Day

The day is soon to come to pass/
Queens, New York Will have gotten rid of us at last/
They making way for the success of College/
Denying us the proper utensils to feed ourselves vital knowledge/
Families put on the streets, women and children/
They didn't worry before about the asbestos in our buildings/
Murders and killings/
Making millions/
As much as the cocoa and soda/
Not to mention helping NYPD reach its quota/
TO be realistic/
I'm no more than a statistic/
Who's vocabulary is considered illicit/
And appearance explicit/
No arrangements for the young elderly and the poor/
No assistance for Brenda from 3rd floor/
Can't wake up out this American dream/
Cash rules everything around me, but I have no cream/
Not enough to provide for my fam/
And then I’m locked and thrown away for handling grams/
This is there intent on my lifespan/
First they took our throne/
Now they take our home/
Just take it, is what the government has shown/
The first to murder, rob, cheat and steal/
Teach me not to feel/
For the opposition/
And then after acting out what I was taught I’m thrown in prison/
I didn't have a war to fight till u made me a soldier/
Couldn’t peddle rocks till u tossed me a bolder/
Where will Southside when the man of the morning/
Move us out the way to make way for the foreign/
Turmoil/
Restored in the soil/
Of this project block/
Money talks and the money wants these turned into co-ops/
How better to explain/
The mind frame/
Of our leaders/
Are acts of the student reflections of the teachers? /
Who doesn't want to teach/
Who can they reach/
Not me, nor the youth/
Harsh but it’s the truth/
Their loss, far as I think it through
But soon my crib will be filled students and no one gives a damn/
I guess we weren't making good enough use for the land/
Eviction day....

I wrote this sometime in 2007 after speaking with my brother on the phone, he told me York College was trying to buy Southside 40 projects and turn some of the buildings into co-ops and the other into dorms. I thought this would mean everyone in the projects would have to be relocated and sent to other projects throughout New York. In fact, a date had not been decided but once it is the residents of Southside Jamaica would have 3 years to either make enough money to pay for the co-ops or find their own way. The elderly are not exempt; they too must find their own way. I don’t like to talk about problems and just talk, I feel the point of a problem being brought up is to its solution. But how do you save a whole neighborhood? Maybe the deal has fallen through but they haven’t set a date on 40’s yet. However my Aunt in Brooklyn has been informed she has 3 years to vacate her apartment, along with my cousin Sean, Shakeeah and Charlie who’s autistic. I remember something like this happening on my way out of Morehouse, low income housing was being bought, and demolished while new buildings were taking their place. Didn’t surprise me that the natives responded in kind by robbing students, I myself was an attempted victim but I honestly didn’t have anything to give. Some say the projects and low income housing residents are part of the decay upon the city they inhabit, I think differently…