Lyrical Somerville

Lyrical Somerville – May 6

On May 6, 2015, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

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The poet David Lombino looks beyond the happy horse…. (well you know what I mean), to what he sees as a rotten underbelly to this new vision of Somerville that is taking place under our noses. There is always two sides of the coin–and you got to look carefully at both. Lombino writes The Times:

David Lombino

“I am a Somerville native and artist, and I absolutely love my city. Except for a few years I’ve spent in New York and a couple of months in Bali, I’ve lived my entire life in Somerville. My experience overseas opened my eyes to the inequality imposed on native societies as richer, Western societies invest in their idyllic land. Through my art, I want to expose this dilemma as it exists in our own land, my native Somerville and Greater Boston area as the area becomes gentrified. This is the land that raised me, and I want to contribute to my community through my art and help the discussion evolve. This poem is inspired by the riots in Baltimore after the funeral of Freddie Gray. The riots to me represent a catharsis on not just racial prejudices but economic inequality, and is something I feel in our safe Somerville is quietly going on and requires redress before our community is forever cleaved away by unconscious Capitalists.”

City of Changes

My city keeps changing
Without me–

I don’t feel a community,
I see new businesses, mostly restaurants,
Catering to wealthy crowds;

I see our land being sold off to developers,
Who don’t live near our city;

I see a people more white,
More educated,
More status-quo and inauthentic,
Accidental imperialists
As they raise the rents against
The old, poor, and native;

And I don’t recognize them,
As the people from my memories,
When I thought my city was the whole world,
And nothing would ever change—

Right now Baltimore is burning in a riot;

Here we face a different kind of fire,
And it looks like progress,
But only if you have money.

— David Lombino

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