"I Am Saint Louis" 6/27/24 12:49PM

Send a text"Time. 6/27/24 12:49pm. Location Poem was written. Sharpsburg GA. Home, Saint LouisDoesn’t matter where I live in the world!Chicago. My home is saint louis.Los Angeles. My home in saint LouisNo matter where I visit in the worldNassau. My home is Saint LouisDublin. My home is saint louis. It doesn’t matter.Will you support the Atlanta braves? If the cardinals aren’t playing…maybe You must love living in a town with a football team. You live the falcons right.My football team play in the UFL and their name is the battle hawks.I am saint louis Missouri, through and through. I am toasted ravioli. I am imos pizza. I am bread co. My first date was at a pasta house. I got married in forest parkmy order is a Half order of shrimp fried rice, a shrimp Saint Paul sandwich, a peach vess with some egg rolls. EVERY SINGLE TIME FOLKS.Good and bad, saint Louis has my heart. I love a cardinals game, but I also want to see ball park village stop enforcing strange dress codes like “No jerseys, athletic shorts, sagging pants or shorts, or bandanas”. We know who you are talking about. And also the venue is 15 steps away from Baseball heaven…BUSCH STATDIUM. I love Nelly, Jayson Tatum, David freeze and Stan the manI can smell the food trucks in tower grove park sitting in my house right now.I hear the music at the botanical gardens. I can feel the fans blowing during intermission at the Muny. I see the kids rolling down Art hill.I remember falling asleep on the floor at saints during the lock ins. Wearing baby blue Air Force ones with a baby blue Micheal Jordan North Carolina jersey on and a pair of gah-bows.I can taste the donuts from pharaohs donuts. I can taste the beer at schlafys. I can taste my grandmothers greens. I’m wearing a STL HAT here, there and everywhere. I don’t own a hat with another city on it. People have Seen my hometown pride in magome, tsumago, Kyoto and hakone.How can I be me without my city.I hear miles Davis in Mexico, I see Black Lives Matter in Ireland. I know that Ferguson is 12 miles from downtown STL.I believe that I’m a force of nature, because of my city. You don’t scare me. You don’t know what I’ve seen, but also the love that I share comes from the people, the music, the food, the community that raised me.My white Air Force ones with the gum bottoms if you know you know, but to most it isn’t a dead give away. The way I say therr slips out from time to time. My favorite quarterback is Kurt Warner. May not say you much. My closet has 38 items that say either STL, Saint Louis, Kirkwood, or the wood. But you can’t get into my closet. My father played baseball with Nelly back in the day, my grandfather use to bodyguard for Ike and Tina on the east side, I was on the cover of Louie magazine in high school, OH what high school did I go to you ask? Kirkwood class of 07! I have an 30 pack of Bud select in my refrigerator downstairs here in Georgia right now. All these things but what you truly need to see is this.I’m a young black man, raised by a single mother on the south side of STL. I’m not rich, I’m not a monster success. Where I’m from, I knew people who never left the city. I knew people who were murdered, I knew the difference between fireworks and guns as a child. But I’m alive. I’m married, working on a family. College grad, and proud of my hometown. I am a visual representation of saint louis. The city comes in different colors, shapes and sizes. But it’s Strong.Loving.Smart.Hard.Old.Beautiful.Ugly.Troubling.Confusing.Inspiring. Growing.Big.A wee bit racist.Yet progressive.Historic.Conservative. Free. I mean everything. The zoo, Support the show