Editor’s Note: PublicSource has an ongoing call for residents to submit creative contributions on how change feels in the Pittsburgh region. Below is a poem from a North Side resident as part of our Develop PGH coverage.

This city we live in is growing
maturing like the trees in our streets and parks
if you blink the change will happen as the seed sprouts
then rises like a sapling from the earth

Boulevards are booming with street beats bouncing from
steel frames to brick, mortar and concrete

The course of our lives mimics the waves of the rivers
this frames the city and direction of our generations
as we move from neighbor’s homes to our own
diverse neighborhoods

Roads pulsate with the souls of us here and those gone
our skins intertwined in the blur of a tapestry

Hear one another’s words spill from lips that
create a song of harmonious action moving us
forward into the unfolding story of our youth,
we are composers of an unwritten song

Footsteps thunder like the beat of a hammer as we
march towards a dream

Celine Barnickel is a writer living on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

Develop PGH has been made possible with funding from The Heinz Endowments.

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