A neighborhood cut down

by Frank G. Karioris
        Enright Parklet, Pittsburgh

The smell of trees & nature holds the air steady
juniper, maple, & pine.

Quiet is disrupted by mechanical whirs & hums
of machines digging ground outwards.

Folded upon itself is the sense of movement
& change about to come to being.

Like most change, life both makes way & is
made in new ways.

Sitting amongst fresh dirt is an old friend
now laid to rest to stare briefly at the stars.

A new fence added breaks to playgrounds
where children once felt new joys,

now the sight is one of a dark future coming
into being by the excavators.

Children are gone replaced by hardhats &
men from other parts of the city,

drizzles from rain seep into upturned soil.

Frank G. Karioris (he/they/him/them) is a writer and educator based in Pittsburgh whose writing addresses issues of friendship, masculinity, and gender. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pittsburgh Poetry Journal, Collective Unrest, Maudlin House, Sooth Swarm Journal, and Crêpe & Penn amongst others. They are a regular contributor to Headline Poetry & Press.

City of Asylum believes that All Pittsburghers are Poets. With the Poem of the Week series, we seek to increase the readership and appreciation of poetry locally by publishing poems written by residents of Allegheny County of all ages and levels of experience. In partnership with the Poetry Editors at Sampsonia Way Magazine, City of Asylum advances our mission to defend, celebrate, and build on creative freedom of expression. This project received a RADical ImPAct Grant from the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD).