The disappearing

with guitar and amplifier, a young man
sings Natural Mystic by Bob Marley
where the bushes grow wild
and people sleep outside
where the king of the canal shows
the contradictions of life
where Rasta-Philosophers talk under the elderberry tree
where the sad woman sells street magazines
where the dealers help and the music plays
as the best coffee in town is drunk next door
and young professionals walk purebred dogs

but when the fence is built
and the old shop is cleared
and the bank is made uninhabitable

what will be lost here?
the natural mystic that still flows through the air
that is already lost elsewhere in Berlin and Europe
the despair would then be somewhere else
but it would hardly disappear

the dirt, the trash, the graffiti
the gifts on the street that we take with us
those who talk to themselves
and wash the hair in the park
those who smoke heroin and just need a few cents

that is the resistance
they protect this permeable fortress
of plurality and solidarity
from powerful investors
from the bourgeoisie
from the big clean-up of the neighborhood
it is them we have to protect
it is them we have to thank
it is from them we have to learn