Love Letter to Nagin

Collection

Hellicane: Poets Respond to Hurricane Katrina

Mayor, come outside\r\nEyes wide, collapse to your knees in sobs\r\nOf the background you once called your city\r\nDreaming of prophecy - pages in Scripture\r\nSpeak of desolation\r\n\"Everything is desolate and displaced - widows\r\nMourn and children weep!\"\r\nDesolation, not of Jerusalem or Judah\r\nBut of New Orleans\r\n\r\nMayor, sank to the ground in racking cries\r\nHeard from the radio -\r\n\"My city\'s gone!\"\r\nWoken in the wraith of fury\r\nOf a bi-polar wicked woman named Katrina\r\n\r\nMayor, pray to the Almighty\r\nAnger in the form of blame -\r\nToward a bush who can only do so much\r\nRages of the displaced and starved\r\nJudgement. Tribulation. Justice. Trial\r\n\r\nMayor cries, black and proud\r\nThis is now an infamous memory of an African-\r\nAmerican generation - a story to be told\r\nAnd passed down to generations:\r\n\r\n\"My child,\" they\'ll say to little ones not yet born\r\n\"I remember those days, when dogs whined and\r\nOur town sank like the Titanic\r\nA judgment from God? I say, a judgment of the sin\r\nIn the French quarters...or maybe we experienced the\r\nPower of evil\r\nOr wraith in the form of a hurricane!\"\r\n\r\nMayor weeps, \'cause all things desolate, and the ground\r\nWallows under sludge and debris, and all hope is dashed -\r\nFor now\r\n\r\nCry to the Almighty and wonder\r\nWhy this? Why now? How could this be?!\r\nHe sobs\r\nAs New Orleans lies underwater\r\nDisasters everywhere are getting larger\r\nAn incomprehensible sign of things to come\r\nFear and the burden of those hurting weigh like brick\r\nOn your heart, and tears fall like rain\r\nFor those scorned by her fury\r\n\r\nAnd then He says to you\r\n\"Let your heart not be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me.\"\r\nMayor\r\nIn My Father\'s house are many rooms, if it weren\'t so, I would tell you\r\nMayor, be humble, seek God, repent and he\'ll lift you\r\nI will go and prepare a place for you\r\nHope will rise\r\n\r\nImages of trueness of bureaucracy\r\nWhich alienated them for their dark skin\r\nBeautiful black faces full of fear and trepidation\r\nIn a hellhole called the Superdome\r\nBut rescued by the colorful people of the rainbow\r\n\r\nMayor, rise to your knees\r\nLike prophecy in the bible, it will rise again\r\nAnd be bathed in God\'s righteousness like a warm sun\r\n\r\nMayor, rebuilding will begin!\r\n\"My city is emerging!\"\r\nLessons learned in the form of hundreds saved by Him\r\nSalvation came through tragedy\r\nLove given through wrath\r\nWarning given in love -\r\nShake them now, to keep them from something\r\nEternally more horrid than a city submerged\r\nIn bleak water\r\n\r\nMayor cries before the sign of his cherished city\r\nAnd nations rushed to your side\r\nAnd there you see restoration, spiritual salvation, Christ\'s body\r\nIn action - love in action\r\nAnd rejuvenation on the brink of horizon\r\n\r\nSee, mayor, see\r\nBeyond those deceitful levees and your trust in man\r\nSee into the eyes of the Risen One who can save you\r\nSee the rejuvenation\r\nOf your cherished city\r\nOn the brink of horizon

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Citation

“Love Letter to Nagin,” Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, accessed September 19, 2024, https://hurricanearchive.org/items/show/26319.

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