Besides my late entry for the One Note Melody challenge, this is yet another song focused on the mess our country is in now. I'm trying to get it worked out of my system. I really am.
Welcome to the neighborhood
Clean and lily white
Safety in numbers in urban flight
Ticky-tacky houses
The future’s ours to see
Anything to save us from our history
Cloaked by self-inflicted fears
Steeped in sophistry
Anything to save us from our misery
The irony that some of us think we will hold sway
When all that we have done is keep running away
Well, there goes the neighborhood
The others moving in
Time to pack it up and start searching again
Too close to the urban core
Moving further out
Leave behind defenses to prevent a rout
Bigger, nicer houses
For everyone to see
Anything to save us from our history
Containment by redlining
Profiteers’ decree
Anything to save us from our misery
The irony that some of us think we will hold sway
When all that we have done is keep running away
Some of us keep pushing out
Some of us return
To the seductive urban life for which we yearn
Bulldoze down the commons
Tear down all the blight
Build up all the things we need, shiny and bright
Businesses and restaurants
And a grocery store
Things required of the folks who lived here before
The very finest condos
To meet our basic needs
Anything to save us from our history
The irony that some of us think we will hold sway
When all that we have done is keep running away
The crux of our argument
Of why we won’t discuss
The reason for our fears is that there’s been more of us
But the tables, they be turning
The numbers, they don’t lie
The source of our power fades by and by
It’s a time for renewal
A chance to unlearn
A time not for replacement but for our return
We cannot keep on fearing like our fathers would
Appreciate the welcome to the neighborhood
It is the thinnest of veils
That shrouds the mystery
Of the space between us and our history
@misterdemp Feb 2022
This piano riff idea is a real ear catcher and communicates a thoughtful and searching feeling...like we're looking for answers. For myself, hearing something with personal perspective to do "the work" and that resonates with others with similar viewpoints. Feels like an important call towards allyship and to look to embody ones ideals versus just talking about them.