gentrification - the death of art...the inevitable postponed as long as possible...

so i've been really excited
about how the neighborhood is growing,
but the inevitable is happening
in this previously unfavorable part of melrose...
i guess mondo video closing down
was the first sign that fringe places
might not make it...

if you've been here you know that
this place is filled with holes
and held together with tape and hope.
the literal structure is two separate buildings
that had an alley between them
and someone decided to put a roof on it.
not the best structural integrity
to be sure.

but now we fight for what has been built
out of this sweatshop

we have a new roommate
who is eager to help
redo the place, make it more organized
so i have great hope..

i despise commerce, and money
and logistics, but i have put forth
my greatest effort to sustain this place
as well as within our means.

i am sure that our new roommate maty,
though i am very sad to see lilly leave,
even though i know she is going back to school,
and pursuing the next part of her life...
i think this new blood in the family
will be good for il corral.
and i will work as tirelessly as possible
to ensure that this place can adapt
and thrive...

we have been through so much,
violence, betrayal, factioning,
evolution not without scars,
and it is a miracle that we're still here...
but we are,
and i refuse to accept the tenets of
gentrification,
though i am aware of it's painful inevitability
and the tenuous nature of our endeavors...

so what...
at any given point in our history,
this could have ended, but it didn't...
i am proud of the people who love this place,
and i knew that what we were doing was rare.

that we have been sustainable for more than
a couple years,
is proof that experimental music has value,
and our defense of the fringe has not been in vain.

i am lucky that i have lived this long,
and though i do not feel that i have accomplished anything,
i have helped others reach their dreamy realities,
and that has to count for something.

this beast upgrade of the neighborhood,
this taking over of real estate by the mobile endowed
may be eventually unstoppable,
but we knew that from the beginning,
and ride the tides
as a body calm,
almost dead, so calm
to be carried not crushed
by the vast ocean

i reserve my profanity for the depth of feeling
and this is deserved.