West Philly

Not the center, but a little to the left,
live those with promise, and those bereft.
First the learned, then the free,
then those without leaf or tree,
when you travel west are the ones you’ll meet,
going from City Hall to 69th Street.
The universities and co-ops cannot hide
the shuttered schools and bombing sites.
The progressives who want to change the nation
start by displacing the local population.
Home to both the generous and the very unkind,
contradictory is the natural West Philly state of mind.