Dean Bartoli Smith stands outside of Roman’s Place at the corner of South Decker and Baltimore Streets in East Baltimore with a memorial booklet for veteran newspaperman Joe Nawrozki. A poet with roots in the old city neighborhoods of Orangeville and Govans, Smith released the collection Baltimore Sons in 2022.

Like many Baltimoreans of a certain age — those born between the Eisenhower and Carter Administrations — Bartoli still mourns the loss of the beloved Baltimore Colts and the destruction of Memorial Stadium on 33rd street. His poetry mourns both bricks and bodies that have fallen in Baltimore since the Second World War.