Frank Sherlock, former Philadelphia Poet Laureate, created Write Your Block as a way for Philadelphians to explore their neighborhoods via poetry, charting—and sharing—their communities through their own words. The result: A map of Philadelphia that is not rivers and parks and streets, but ideas and memories and dreams for neighborhoods through the people who know them best. Below, one such poem, from one Philadelphian.
Submit your own neighborhood poem here.
parked near the street curb,
unthreading a tie.
Squinting, a Pall Mall stuck to his lip,
he watched the ambulance creep by.
“That’s the third time this month,
that new apartment complex,
had someone go bottom up,”
Hank Henry thought to himself
and took a thick swig of whiskey
(he’d mixed with diet pepsi
swirled in a big gulp
he filled at the 7-11 by the bus stop
and combined in the bathroom
a bottle produced from his pocket
and emptied).
He felt stealthy.
Hank Henry harrumphed and let his mind wander to darts.
“In just a few hours, the B-Team championship starts.”
Header Photo: Google Maps
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