Ode to Marlowe

[POETRY]

Do you remember Marlowe Estate?
do you remember its dilapidated maze of crumbling council buildings?

FEATURE17 STANDS OUT FOR ITS INNOVATING URBAN DESIGN, SHAPING A NEW
COMMUNITY AND PROVIDING A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT WITH CONTEMPORARY
AESTHETICS AND DYNAMIC SURROUNDINGS, scream the billboards around the new
development

as if they could erase all the pain and debasement that happened there
with A.I.-generated images of happy couples prancing around the new grounds.

“Go to Marlowe” whispered into burner phones
before the dealer stopped answering the line altogether
and you kept on ringing and ringing but it was only
“Welcome to LycaMobile! Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice message system”
fuck! he said he was one minute away half an hour ago
and there we were, for hours.

do you remember Marlowe Estate like I do?

the boarded-up flats turned into crackdens
the zombie knives casually thrown on dirty counters
the clogged, shit-encrusted toilets
no lights, no water
the fumes and smoke coating the walls and our lungs
the busted couches we dragged from the street
the people who dragged themselves from the street,
hoping for a pipe, a roof, a conversation, clean needles
the screams echoing around the estate
but the laughs, too
the stairwell where I watched Chunks pin up in his groin
in front of kids coming back from school
the faded eviction notices on the doors

I want to shout at Countryside Homes, tell them all about the real Marlowe history
so it doesn’t get cleansed and forgotten
like its previous occupants.