1970's Lower East Side

The fields of our youth, often remembered as discolored and stained polaroid images
in our minds, we ask ourselves
Is that how it really was?
Do you remember that as I do?
Where did all the pawn shops, that inspired questions and adventurous imaginings about our neighbors' histories go?

The drugs, the graffiti, the gangs, prostitutes, Hip Hop, Pop, Grunge and rock and roll, the strange fruit that was our broken sense of community...
Cuchifritos, knishes, pigeon peas, corned beef and cabbage
Piragua and hotdogs urine and blood
Garbage and exhaust fumes
our perfume
abandoned cars, discarded furniture
abandoned lots and broken sidewalks
our playground;
the heroin laden avenues, crowded with bent walking dead, one had to bypass to get to school, the vacant lots we played in, until colleges and megastores took over
these were times to be both feared and revered, as the richness of circumstances and mixed cultures that created it, we will not likely see again.

Were we really that fearless?
Those that don't know, who weren't there, doubt our memories, our stories
disbelieve the foundations that built our strength and resolve
Those that were...
our comrades in arms
battle warn and scared,
we nod to in passing, on these same now gentrified streets, fellow warriors, fellow survivors
with silent celebration and much respect
acknowledging and respecting those "who made it"
thrived and survived.