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crab legs, crawdads, gumbu & jumbalaya
finger licking began here at the edge
of the swamp where alligatole patrol
with periscope eyes, a city arose
like Jesus walking on water, performed
a balancing act in a dance of life
the edge, the gulf, living below sea level,
the swamp, the winds, the rains, the driving
rain, the back & forth of the futile windshied wiper
in the stalled traffic, the crack of branches, electric wires -
where are we going? away away away away
I hear the windshield wiper say, but only it moves
I fell in love with you walking the streets of the French Quarter,
holding hands beneath the balustrades, eating breakfast at our special place
on a side street never to be named, I fell in love with you sitting in Louis Armstrong Park,
at the edge of the French Quarter, and then again nearby in St. Louis #1 Cemetary
kissing among the mildewy crypts, I kept falling in love with you
in New Orleans, a kind of music filled me, I smelled mimosa
Everett Maddox, the sloshed poet in residence at the Maple Leaf Bar,
raises his ghostly glass, hovering over the rising watets -
spirits wail in the wind, play tricks with peoples' minds.
Clinging to a roof or to each other, all we have right here & now -
was that a gunshot? how will I get water? where's my little brother?
I hope & pray that they will...