1. Corner Store
After the abrupt closure of the neighborhoods’ primary grocery store Aldi at 3811 W. Madison St., local residents were denied access full-service grocery vendors. This subsequently forced residents to rely on mini marts, or corner stores. The denial of access to healthy foods has contributed immensely to food scarcity in the city of Chicago.
2. Untitled
I remember the first time I was baptized, I did it with my mother
We dipped down together that Sunday
They soaked us in His spirit,
Felt like they pushed every inch of that biblical bath through our bodies, I was eight years old and my mother
wanted this Holy serenity to save me
Immersion still makes me sea sick,
I never learned how to swim though tangled tides
but my mother tells me my birth was a blessing,
That I've always been her lifeboat
That's she's happy I wasn't rinsed out her womb
That I'm not like my sister
My sister has always been a floater
Everyone in this family presumes my flesh won't fizz underwater like hers
That I won't let college drown me
dry me up like dropout
They say my sister has been dripping in deals with the devil,
That she never calls,
or that when she does it's only because she needs something
Not because she wants to revive a broken bloodline
I want to resurrect my sister
rear her up from the bottom of the drain
She has been bobbing underneath every unwashed sin
My mother has been spiraling down with her,
Tells me she wishes she could swallow her sinning shadow
How am i supposed to tell my mother i don't think the congregation held me down
long enough in that purity pool
Or that the Holy ghost didn’t run through my body like he should have that Sunday
That I can feel myself slipping away too
I've been gargling backwashed expectations I want to be gulped down,
Or maybe I just wish my family wasn't
We have all been reaching for redemption
And gripping for air,
Feels like everyone in the family has learned gasping reflexes
They are dipping down together I want to save them