Trespass My Ass. by Ezhno Martin

    Youngstown Ohio is a dead city

where my dead grandfather was born in 1925

        and lived for four years before his dad died

    and the family moved back to Spain
            where he'd stay

        until he realized at 23 that his citizenship

            was his ticket away from the tyrant in power

        so he took a boat to New York

I was in Youngstown today

    the first member of the family in two generations

        to see the spot he'd called home

    since he himself returned in the late 70's

only to realize they'd razed the place

    along with the the whole neighborhood

along with the whole economy

    along with all the will and means people had to survive there

            All that was clinging to life 40 years ago is gone now

        and in it's place is blocks and blocks of empty lots

                only instead of the condemned buildings

            and piles of rubble my grandfather Gerardo saw

                instead of the crime and poverty

                    that seemed to crush the concept of his childhood

                pieced together as it was from pictures and stories

            is silence as wild grass and flowers blow in the breeze

                    of a May morning

just like him

    the ugly part of his dying days

have faded

    and in it's place is fertile soil for new beginnings

        He was a farmer

            and a bee keeper

        back in Spain

                in America he kept the family fed in the summertime

            by turning the backyard into an urban farm

                    before hipsters coined the concept

                because it made him feel home

        and that's why earlier

            as I stood in front of a field

                that used to have a mailbox that read

            355 Summit Street – The Martin Family

I dug up a patch of grass

    and planted some tomatoes around a

        Private Property – No Trespassing sign

    so the Martin family could live in that soil again

            and climb that sign

        until it fell over

                under the weight of their future

Ezhno Martin doesn't believe in god, pronouns, american exceptionalism, most conventions of capitalization, monogamy, any form of censorship, that 9/11 was real, casseroles, coming to a full stop at stop signs, chivalry, patriotism, hand washing after bathroom visits, rough sex, decorum, the importance of biological families, and/or that The New York Knick's are ever going to get their shit together.  Ezhno lives in Toledo, Ohio.  Ezhno is now from Toledo, Ohio, because that's how that works.  You can't misgender Ezhno, because Ezhno doesn't believe in genders, pronouns, safe spaces or any of that social-justice-warrior-rich-kid-with-a-complex bullshit.   Just say “nice ass” if you're feeling nervous or confused about the fact that the 6'2” Adonis that is Ezhno hates your counter culture just as much as the culture it opposes.