a poetic primer for understanding these times

All that we do not know haunts us. In some sense, social media has only made us more aware that our knowledge about what is happening next door or in the next city is limited. Nevertheless, we still extrapolate feelings from posts and insinuate critique into memes. This means that we require a basic lexicon to decode texts that were intentionally written to avoid censorship. Currently circulating is a poem about the courage to write directly about what’s been happening. And yes, I’m aware that the poem has circulated anonymously. Translation, below:

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census data. . .

Census data reminds me that shifting geographies undulate like poetry, and likewise get caught in the throat before lurching out, taking root beyond consciousness. And New York. Pulsing, sparkling New York, here too in Shenzhen.

1810: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Charleston

1860: New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Boston

1910: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston

1960: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit

2010: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia