Priced Out
by EL POETA
Logan Square is
its own beast entirely because
where else do you have radical alt queers and
millenial hipsters cheering each other on
at karaoke? The theme is counter expectations—
however you land you’re in the same dive bar
drinking Old Style and smoking together ends
with a shared relish for the night; common culture
of getting stoned on weekdays at dark
and frequenting third wave coffee shops
too cool for the baristas to bother being polite.
We break bread onthe same falafel
at the Middle Eastern place down the street for six dollars
or tamales at midnight from the tío with a cooler
always saving the night for us drunk party-goers
and I’m forgetting the niche indie book stores
and the bar that still have punk shows and the Sundays
of dudes blaring music in the park, the general air of
of unbotheredness, amicable coexistence
of artists and families and old punks and their imitators
all shopping for groceries at the community owned co-op,
and I’m in denial about the changing,
that this is already almost gone; I'm
even now unable to afford an apartment here
or more than one cocktail at the new yuppie bars
and somehow I feel the urge to hold this
moment closed in a poem for after this area is
sold off, so I can remember what it was like
in ten years when it’ll be torn all to hell and like
none of it ever existed
at all.
El Poeta (she/they) is a queer Latine poet and artist based on the Southwest side of Chicago. Her work often explores themes of queerness, self-identity, the Midwest, abolitionism, mental health, and healing. You can find more of their work at @lacroixlines on IG.