A Verse on Forced Migration [or] How Mr. Willie Was Removed From Two Homes 40 Years Apart

A poetic response to the Biden administration's infrastructure package expanding freeways and the historic impact such expansions have had on communities of color.

Image credit: The Los Angeles Times

In Florida, Tampa, Fla., there's a gentleman, Willie Dixon, who first lost his home in a Black neighborhood there in the 1960s, when Florida Department of Transportation officials built Interstate 275. Then he moved three miles away, started a new life with his wife, lived there for 40 years. And then Florida transport…