Milk and Orange Juice
“Anything that isn’t growing and changing is dead…”
I think that’s what Lauryn Hill said…
An ode to ageing… gracefully at the speed of trust, is sign of life…
The changing face of the O…
Twisted into an infinite sign. Seems like our story will never die…
Only multiply…
As perspectives pierce every side of that prism that is the City Beautiful…
Across time and space, we’ve watched them come…
With heads tilted back peering at the belly of jumbo jets…
The familiar hummm of plane engines incoming, they dripped…
Dropped…
Ears popped and landed safe… in what was once McCoy Air Force Base now… an expanded O.I.A… Airport code MCO… to stay…
Or play with peers. The blurry flash of 150 years…
The inescapable recognizable ears…
The evolving skyline seems to shed her skin every seven… yet spirit remains…
The 407… and the 408 relate like Irish twins…
The city’s veins expressed in her roadways…
Ourselves like blood cells…
Jumping jazz… Orchestral pizazz… Hip hop and dance…
Massive murals act like fingerprints on our glass. Character…
The motor of swans feet beat on…
And farmer’s markets meet on…
weekends greeting passers by in groups…
A tribute to Orlando’s agricultural roots…
Milk and orange juice…
Her face has changed, but not her boots.
She line dances with popped fans and stays cool…
Active… Creative… Vibrant…
As collaborative as it gets…
Stories intertwine like fish nets. Lakes… baked into the fabric of the land…
Urban structure in the South…
Sirens… scream down Orange Ave… prioritizing life… signs of rapid growth and the demand to keep up…
Her changing face has shades of brown…
And beige…
A stunning array of pride across social locations. A melting pot… or more a mosaic… draped like constructed quilts in our windows. What do YOU see?
What have you heard?
What does it feel like when city birds fly straight through red lights?
Do you realize that this space belongs to us all?
Pondering in the reflection of this pond…
A long way from 1875…
Growing and changing is just another lyric in our song…
And just another reminder…
That we’re still alive.
City of Orlando, Poet Laureate
Shawn Welcome
Listen to Shawn speak his poem:
Watch Shawn perform his poem