Is This My Country?

Collection

Hellicane: Poets Respond to Hurricane Katrina

City of my joy, city of my dreams\r\nUnder water and forgotten\r\nCorpses floating by\r\nBabies dying\r\nYoung and old blacks, old whites\r\n\r\nThat could be my grandmother\r\nDead in her wheelchair\r\nOr my brother\'s corpse\r\nFloating in the water\r\n\r\nMy President is bragging about his war\r\nSurrounded by white-clad sailors\r\nSpending the night in the white Hotel del Coronado\r\nWhile blacks, mostly blacks\r\nSuffer and die\r\n\r\nThe aid trickles in\r\nMore die by the hour\r\nDonate to the Red Cross\r\nI do so but feel worthless nonetheless\r\n\r\nIt is not what I can or cannot do\r\nDo or do not do\r\nThat would save those people\r\n\r\nIt is what my society\r\nMy government\r\nMy leaders\r\nAre able to do\r\n\r\nThey disappoint me\r\nAnd I am ashamed\r\nOf the government\r\nOf the society\r\nI call my own\r\nAnd am part of\r\nAnd am at least in part responsible for\r\n\r\nI\'ll become better than that\r\nAnd settle for nothing less\r\nFrom those who lead me\r\n\r\nGoodbye New Orleans\r\nI\'ll see you again on the other side of this nightmare

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Citation

“Is This My Country?,” Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, accessed March 29, 2024, https://hurricanearchive.org/items/show/26098.