A long, free-verse poem about New Orleans. |
New Orleans, a city of jazz and Creole cuisine, where good times roll for tourists and native sons alike. A port city uniquely wonderful with its French Quarter, riverboats, artists, and beignets by the river. New Orleans, a city of impending disaster -- a city whose luck ran out. Mighty Katrina, a category five, wicked lady takes aim at the city, but delivers only a glancing blow. New Orleans is spared! Spared the worst destruction at the storm’s passing, until… the 17th Street Canal levee breaks, filling the city with waters pouring in from Lake Ponchartrain. Oh, the shame of it! New Orleans now lies flooded, its hopes drowned, with citizens trapped and desperately in need. More than a million fled before the hurricane; yet hundreds of thousands remain to be evacuated afterwards. Some who stayed turn to violence and looting, despicable acts by a despicable few, scum of the city. Oh, the shame of it! America watches as thousands upon thousands endure day after day, waiting for relief that fails to come. People suffer and die as conditions deteriorate, and still they do not come. People wade through chest-deep toxic water to islands of interstate and safety, while others sit on their rooftops. Tens of thousands fill the Superdome. Corpses float in the water and lie unattended in the streets. The survivors feel angry and abandoned as they wait in the stench and filth in sultry heat. Where are those in charge? Oh, the shame of it! Finally evacuated, the city lies wounded, empty and flooded. Its streets are deserted, save for police, troopers, and soldiers. The dead are gathered. No time for mourning. There are levees to be repaired; water to be pumped from the stricken lady. Plans for reclaiming the city are underway. New Orleans shall return to her place of honor as a premier American city … and sooner than originally thought possible. Katrina could not drown her spirit! New Orleans, I long to hear your jazz floating in the nighttime air soon again, to eat my fill of your gumbo, jambalaya, oysters, and blackened redfish, to sit by the river and watch the barges plying the mighty Mississippi, and to know that Mardi Gras once again beats as your heart. God speed, New Orleans! Please check out my ten books: http://www.amazon.com/Jr.-Harry-E.-Gilleland/e/B004SVLY02/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 |