Foreclosure Poetry By Bryan Thao Worra

Photo By 612 Authentic,
Possibly a Video Capture

Bryan met with Jake and Gabe of 612 Authentic--yes, still making their movie about the foreclosure crisis--and he read a poem in front of a foreclosed house. Here is...

...the poem, which Bryan was kind enough to email me.

Closer, 2008

A house as a poem is about doors
And walls, neighbors and stories.

Not mere beams and boards,
But the hearts behind them, varied as they are.

Here, the child is supposed to play,
While the lovers smile by their stars,
Our elders grow, tomorrow arrives.

Today?
So many rooms empty,
So many dreams lost.

Undone by paper and calculation,
Where shall we eat, where shall we stay?
Where shall we dare another day?

We, as memories, a nation, a city of
Numbers who must not forget we are still people.

Human. One.

Finance, like demons, has its place.
Justice, like wisdom, flourishes only among the free,
As proper as the open eye on a humane face.