City of Brotherly Love

Growing Up in Philadelphia, PA

In Philly’s shadows, where the buildings rise,

Under amber lights and smoky skies,

We ran the streets, both fierce and fast,

Brothers and sisters, built to last.

We grew up quick, no time to stall,

With dreams that soared beyond the wall,

But not all made it—some fell in the fight,

To guns, to streets, swallowed by night.

Corner hustles and siren screams,

Laced in the seams of our childhood dreams,

We knew the taste of powder and smoke,

The sting of tears, words left unspoke.

Lost friends like ghosts, they haunt the block,

Names on walls, time can't unlock,

Faces in frames, memories steeped,

In the stories our hearts have carefully kept.

Yet some of us rose, fought past the pain,

Through rain-soaked streets, we broke the chain,

Learned to survive, to seek and to build,

To rewrite the fate our city had willed.

Philly forged us, through fire and flame,

Scarred and strong, we bear its name.

For every soul we lost to the past,

We hold on tighter, make each breath last.

This city taught us what it means to fight,

To find hope's glow in the coldest night.

We’re here, we're rising, our voices loud—

Philly-born, unbreakably proud.