John Kinsella

"This story is not mine."
Walter Benjamin

Owner

This building has been condemned
and will make way for a brilliant condo:
full of light and reflections, fine
fittings and comfortable living.

Squatter

We're not moving. It's a waste.
Fifty of us live here. It's a community.
The energy exudes and excoriates
the indifference of the city.

Owner

Demolition is an artform.
Pickaxe, jackhammer, ball,
cathartic implosion. The city
is eradicating vermin.

Squatter

You let this place sit and rot
as the land value went up:
a lack of housing, settlements
of cardboard boxes.

Owner

The relationship between time
and labor and demand and desire;
sensory organs of the market.
Time to close the pigeon loft.

Squatter

An improved property under
our care: a place of mantras
and prayer. We govern ourselves
without oppression; with respect.

Owner

You speak in platitudes.
Language grows impoverished
in your mouths. The majority
demands removal.

Squatter

The dust will elect
the shape of this place.
Weather is alive in masonry.
Eviction is a house of storms.

Rooms near the harbour,
developments on the outskirts;
narrative builds and parodies
the cycles of place.