There Goes the Neighborhood

We were fine,

My mother had money,

Built a new house,

We lived in a good, thriving neighborhood.

We didn't know what we escaped would slowly creep up on us.

Gunshots echoed across our community 

Sirens blared past our neighborhood,

And black men were reported murdered on Local News.

Everyday,

It was reminder, that we hadn't escaped.

The halls of home vibrated 

As desperate love and desperate luxury

Mother and father,

Howled at each other,

Their cries echoing through my ears 

And Shook the deepest pits of my small heart. 

Houses were left empty, and friends had become memories.

Late summer nights hid desperate thieves

In their heated shadows,

And soon someone's house was broken into. 

Many others escaped the neighborhood before it reached its fate.

Soon, it was just my mother, and brothers.

father was only a voice on the phone.

Money was becoming scarce,

And I still wanted to have a chance to live,

So I never became too desperate. 

the chance seemed to slip away more, as poison water had creeped into our pipelines,

And it finally caught us. 

The house next door is now empty, 

Kids almost tried to jump my mother

And 

An old, forgotten friend was found  buried in the snow.