The Gentry
Gentrification...
It's a sick, sad situation...
Playing the game of real estate,
And cutting out the human aspect
With a scythe...
It's the reason I left Grand Rapids...
I needed a new lease on life,
And I was tired of witnessing
All of the authentic local businesses,
And real people get cut down
For an exchange in capital...
It's not practical...
Gentrification...
It's killed the artist life in so many configurations...
It's not regulated, because it's not considered a thing,
And it's hard to see with all of life's distractions...
But it's there...waiting to strike...
Like a saw scaled viper in the night!...
I saw it happening on Wealthy Street...
The resident African American and Mexican, white poor artists all
Were cleaved
For a new upper class aesthetic
That the real estate agents were going for...
What a fucking bore it all is when
Money is the deciding factor over life...
Gentrification...
It's a sick, sad situation...
Playing the game of real estate,
And cutting out the human aspect
With a scythe...
I saw it happen on Division street
Where the upscale pseudo New York lofts
Moved in that only the rich college kids
Could afford...
But they had a sliding fee scale!...
Let's give the motherfuckers an applause!
They favored the trickle down theory economics
And the human side was forever lost...
That shit could only be understood by the
Highly privileged and the conspirator from the inside
Who choose the right proportion of ethnicity
From a racially biased list...
The lifeblood and the grit was squeezed and many
Neighbors were given the heave ho!...
Not a pleasant way to manage life...
A Falsetto of a human gesture
Disguised as progress and renewal...
And slipped up the patients' arm
Like an I.V. for a dying breed
That will soon be sent to pasture...
The new blossoming artist is introduced
To life through this imploding factor...
It is disgusting, and I pray that something changes...
Where the arts are once again championed,
And we're all not stuck living in our nostalgic cushions...
While the real estate men take a gluttonous bite
Out of the world and won't look back...
I see New York's Big Apple in the trash...
The remaining real human beings will be toppled...
As the rampant Privateers ride on!...
3/22/23
Bunny Villaire
Edit#5