The Deluge Of New Orleans

Collection

Hellicane: Poets Respond to Hurricane Katrina

\r\n\"Shoot into the sky, burn the city to the ground\" - Anon. N.O.\r\n\r\nWhen the rains came, and the walls collapsed under\r\nthe lash of some furious tongue of hurricane song\r\nWe were left clinging to rooftops, strung up on the bridges\r\nwatching alligators accomodate those cats and corpses.\r\nWatching the burning sun steal out our breath.\r\nThe glass streets of the Quarter, of Chartres and Bienville soaked\r\nWith muddybottom and crayfish; the harbor doomed.\r\nThe deep trombones resound beneath the water\r\nto send along the coffins yet again\r\nby light of a mockingbird moon.\r\n\r\nLook-a-here, we thought, you could come and\r\nsave us from our tumultuous home-\r\nOur home we said for all of time. Don\'t let us\r\nbe buried here in your imaginations. Act now.\r\nYou won\'t regret it; we\'ll give you our song...\r\n\r\nThe mystery deepens, like Gamorrah, and our town begins\r\nto haunt the American sleep. Oh man,\r\nwe have always lived in your dreams\r\nbut now this bitch, this Katrina, this killer come on down\r\nwith her howler monkey song and broad dampening skirts\r\nhas brought us so low\r\nthat we may never make it to the table again.\r\nWe\'re wading now with prickly eyes to the window\r\njust to see them X-cross an old floater. Our young are shocked\r\nwith confusion at the silence, and the lies.\r\nCars grow on sycamore trees. Houses flow by like fallen leaves.\r\nYou\'ll remember us, dreaming, you will\r\neven if you cannot save us now.\r\n

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Citation

“The Deluge Of New Orleans,” Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, accessed May 2, 2024, https://hurricanearchive.org/items/show/26355.