Welcome to Our Brent
This poem was written by guest writer Barbara Kyei as part of our place-based organising work and community reporting project in Brent.
Welcome to OUR Brent?
Our commonality is for everyone to be welcomed
Welcome not for what you are but rather who you are.
Welcomed to our city
Welcome to our community
Welcomed into our homes.
Welcome thy Neighbour
Up until now, being happy is the goal
And the love, the support, is the driving force to achieve this
The last time my loving thoughts of vividly liking it here
here in the community. Well perhaps, we are at an impasse
I’m closing my eyes to what is missing, what is abandoned
I open them to a community that has not returned.
I close my eyes again,
when I open them, our social hub is closed.
My eyes stay open this time, and now I’m paying double for parking!
I cross the road, and the banks are no more.
Down the street, stores are shoulder to shoulder, opposite the growing gambling
premises that show up like weeds through paving stones.
Connections with one another, fleeting
old life facing new, new infrastructure, new bodies.
Adjust the old ways to the new.
And change continues at a rush hour pace, yet no progress to us an unsatisfying taste.
Community spirit is there, it may be far away, but you see it
and it embraces those who find themselves left behind.
“This is how it used to be, this is how it is” and the loss is no more.
It has become our normal.
We see it every day.
A fractured community, unhappiness prevails, selling the core pay off debts.
We are nine people and one on Zoom, inside our own little paradise.
All from different walks of life
We came together with a purpose, now a clear vision of how we used to be,
To, how we are…
So, tell me:
What do you love about Brent?
