Terra Oliveira
Philly Spring Cleanup
it’s philly spring cleanup day
block captains organize neighbors
& we shovel out mounds of debris
from the gutters
sweeping up months-old tempered glass
in a thousand tiny pieces on the sidewalk
plastic bottles
rusted pipes
soggy papers
& cigarette butts
the city provides us
with a couple of broken brooms
& mayor kenney provides us
with a thank you letter
children run through the streets
which belong to them
fold their growing hands
into flower beds
& bike against oncoming traffic
(really the city is moving against them)
miss jackson, block captain & resident
of 54th & addison for over 50 years,
would definitely run this city better
we would all run this city better
Tenant
do these houses hold the foundation
for setting us free
or will they kill us
we do have a right
i’ve been coughing for years
the mold in the walls
the rust in the water
all the leaking ceilings
collapsing in the kitchens
the housing code
demands 24-72 hours
for landlords to fix almost everything
so while the rent is in escrow
& the landlords appeal us in court
i go back to the fresh air
i falsely remember
of my childhood homes
now foreclosed & sold
Terra Oliveira is a writer and visual artist from the San Francisco Bay Area, and the founding editor of Recenter Press. Their work has been published in Prolit Magazine, Protean Magazine, Hooligan Magazine, Peace, Land, and Bread Magazine, and others, and they were the Artist-in-Residence at the Schoolhouse at Mutianyu at the Great Wall in March 2017. Their ancestral lineages come from the Azores, the Hawaiian islands, Southern China, and throughout Eurasia. You can find them on Instagram @terraoliveira_.