One Day

This is a poem I wrote for an assignment in class. The assignment was to write a poem about Chicago using "artifacts" that we have collected from our experiences. By artifacts I mean phrases that we have heard, or observations that we have made during our time so far. I feel like it is stronger when read, but I hope you might enjoy it nonetheless.


I came to this city to learn,
I came to this city to experience,
I came to this city to see its brilliance,
I came to this city to be amazed,
I came to this city knowing nothing.

And so began the journey;
Of a young man,
Wanting,
Craving,
Longing to learn;
To Learn about the “city of neighborhoods” ,
The “windy city” ,
This bustling city,
The “Paris of the United States”,
“This is Chicago; this,
This is America” .

So what is this city?
“Is it a city of contention?”
A city with an unmatched skyline?
“A raised city?”
A utopian city?
Or is there a darker reality to it?

Is this reality filled with fear?
Fear of the police,
Fear of a name,
A name that has ruled this city for over forty years,
A name that never seems to go away,
Richard Daley,
Richard J. Daley,
Richard M. Daley,
It doesn’t matter,
For “Daley is King,”
And we,
“We are all victims” .

It doesn’t matter;
It doesn’t matter if were “black, white, yellow, or green” ,
We are all victims,
Victims of the reality of the city,
Victims of the violence,
The racism
The corruption,
Where does it end?

Yet, there is beauty in this city,
Beauty hidden in the darkness,
Shown in the green of the grass at Wrigley,
Shown in the fire in the heart of the many,
The fire in Marc Clements,
In Darryl Cannon, Ronnie Kitchen and Marvin Reeves.
The beauty in the water,
As far as the eyes can see,
An ocean of a lake.

There is beauty in the uniqueness of the modern buildings,
In a city “revolutionary in their architecture, ”
In the height of the “Sears tower, “
In a “Ferris wheel that stands 14 stories tall, ”
In the bustle of the city,
In the “superstitions” of cubs fans,

There is beauty in this “feudal state”,
Beauty that for moments,
Overshadows the darkness,
Overshadows the fear,
And for those moments,
The “Code of Silence” seems “Derailed,”
Its as if a “Dark Knight” descends,
And protects,
Protects the city from the “Bad Boys,”
The “Public Enemies” who are not “Wanted,”

For those moments,
The “Ordinary People,” are in a “League of their Own,”
And there is nothing Daley can do,
Nothing Jon Burge can force you to say,
For in those moments of beauty,
This is a utopian society,
This is a city filled with possibility,
Filled with hope,
“Because hope belongs in Chicago.”

I don’t know quite what to think about this city,
I mean there are these “flashes of hope,”
Yet they seem to be just that;
Flashes,
Which, like the flash of a camera,
Vanish in an instant,
And are once again replaced by the shadow,
The shadow of a family that rules this poor feudal state.

One might wonder how he did it,
How he “became the guy?”
In his own words,
“Well my dad was the mayor;”
It really is a kingdom
And Daley is King,
And we,
We are the victims,

But there is Hope,
For the King is stepping down,
He is stepping down from his throne and offering a chance,
A chance of renewal,
A chance of reform.
We are at a “crossroads,”
So what is to come next?
Is it a “century of progress,”
Or a century of the same?

I say “give the lady what she wants”
Give the city “ accountability, transparency, engagement, vision”
Give the city a protector,
Sometimes I ask myself,
“What if Batman was real?”
But then reality sits in.

We need a Harvey Dent,
A Harvey Dent pre-explosion,
Pre-Corruption;
A man who will stand for Justice,
A man with courage,
A man who will stray from the norm,
We don’t need a king,
We need a mayor.

We need someone who knows their place,
We want someone who will “fight for justice;”
Someone who will stand for what is right,
Someone who will see those flashes of hope,
See those moments of brilliance,
Someone who will “change the social order”
The social culture,
And create a new culture;

A culture of expectation,
A culture of opportunity,
A culture of reform.
We need someone to lead the way,
Because if another king arises from this madness,
It will be like “going through a door with no return,”
If we choose that door there will be no “rainbow city”
No “utopian society,”

Instead more of the same,
Leaders who “beg for forgiveness instead of ask for permission,”
Leaders who deny the freedoms that are supposed to be god given,
The freedoms people have fought so long for,
If we elect another king,
There will be no light at the end of the tunnel,
No justice,
Just a continued “division of power,”
A division made up of lords,
Who will always follow their king.

We must not fall back into the “relationships formed in our separate communities” ,
We must step forward as one,
Step forward as a city,
Step forward as one community,
“You have to want it,”
We have to want it.

But this can happen,
We must fight for that justice,
We must fight for that hope,
Because Chicago;
Chicago does deserve hope,
Chicago does deserve justice,
Chicago does deserve that freedom.

So we keep fighting,
We keep praying that one of our brothers and sisters,
That one of our community doesn’t end up in the “death seat,”
And repeat the vicious cycle;
The cycle of violence that has destroyed families,
That has destroyed communities,
And left them full of holes.

So we keep fighting,
We keep fighting because one day,
One day this culture will change,
One day this city will rise,
And Chicago will once again become a leading light in this country,
One day,
One day.