Oh Baltimore, sweet Baltimore!
My home for a year, oh Baltimore!
For my future and life, in you I put stock,
On my first night there, I stumbled into The Block.*

Little Italy was home, an artist’s townhouse that leaked
In winter it froze, in summer it reeked.
Yet it had cats, and a lovely neighborhood:
Inner Harbor was there, and also Whole Foods.

New friends and new hopes, in new churches to meet:
Sailors Union, Govans, FCF, Lee Street,
Central, Chesapeake, Old Otterbein, and more,
In historic and richly diverse Baltimore!

Barukatash, Wyclif, Gideon, Kyriosity,

McKenzie, Garver, Bergey, Steven, Riptiki,

Tag, Steph, AManne, Sad Eyed Artist, Dear_Mo,

And if I’ve forgotten anyone, sorry, but yo!

I’m sorry, dear Baltimore, The City That Reads,
I’d have stayed a bit longer but I didn’t  BELIEVE 
It’s not that your pull and your Charm weren’t strong;
It’s just that the commute to DC was too long.

To you I came, oh Baltimore, bright-eyed but doleful,
Sad and lonely and burdened with a broken heart,
From you I left, love renewed and hopeful,
And with a degree in Digital Art.

– “Oh Baltimore!”
A Really Bad Poem by Paulo

Full photosets: Baltimore Memories, MICA Memories, Lee Memorial Park, President’s Day Snowstorm, Historic Ships, Shot Tower.

* I stumbled into the Block looking for a good cheese steak, not cheap prostitutes. If I’d known about that area of town I wouldn’t have gone near it. Fortunately I left with my virginity and wallet intact.