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
with a shared relish for the night. Common culture
of getting stoned on weekdays
and frequenting the same third wave coffee shops
where the coffee is so good the baristas
don’t bother to pretend to be polite.
We break bread on falafel
at the same Middle Eastern place for six dollars
or tamales at midnight from a dude with a cooler
and I’m forgetting still the niche indie book stores
and the bar that sometimes has local punk bands and the Sundays
with dudes blaring music in the park, the general aura
of unbotheredness, coexisting amicably
artists and families and older punks and their imitators
and I’m in denial about the changing,
that this is already almost gone as soon as it’s
begun, for me; even now unable to afford an apartment
or more than one cocktail at the new yuppie bars
and somehow I feel the urge to save this
moment in a poem for when this area
is completely bought and sold; so I can remember
what it was like in five years when it’ll be torn all to hell
and like none of it ever existed
at all.
Priced Out
by EL POETA
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.