Houses and Homes

Jason “Blackbird” Selman

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What is your value to this world?
What will you leave behind?
How much money can you make?
How many lives can you change?

Money is being made
From the misfortune of others
What makes you care?
When you see your brother fall
Should it matter if they can’t find a place to live?
Or could it simply be their fault?
For not working hard enough

When the money comes
When the money stops coming
When you lose your job
When rents increase but wages don’t
Do we expect the vulnerable to just fall in line?
A line in the sidewalk
Fall into the cracks and be replaced with those with more means
Some may say this is just the way of the world
But together, we all make up this world
And we can determine which way we want it to go

Greed has a way of getting into things
Like hearts and minds
Maybe it is naive to think
that something else like love could rule this world
But I believe that things can change
At the cost of care
Houses made into homes
Citizens who have grown tired
Of falling in line
A city that governs
That is not governed
A city that cares

At Home
June 10, 2023 – 11:31am
No music

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Jason Backbird Selman has worked over many decades to mobilize poetic spaces, both on the page, but critically within the context of community performances, to speak truth about life in this city. This poem reflects this. Jason shared it first during a community speak-out during the Suoni per il Popolo festival, on a street corner outside of métro Laurier, to denounce moves by the right-wing CAQ government to cut the ability for tenants to transfer their leases in Québec, making affordable rents, for artists and many communities even more unreachable within the context of an affordability crisis in this city and beyond.

:: – Stefan.