It swallowed them whole, then spit them back out
like a snake's breakfast, all unwanted bits
left to bloat and bleach and wash up at last
on the brown avenues in back of town.
Some hung from trees as their grandfathers did,
strange fruit that sprung up from a poisoned soil.
Separate but equal triumphed at last.
Indiscriminate and leveling death
made them one with the matrons of Lakeview
and left the men of St. Charles Avenue
unmasked at last: lords of misrule
over the ruins of a lost kingdom.
Poetry Poem New Orleans Hurricane Katrina
The Tsunami of St. Claude Avenue (Version 2)
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2 comments:
So, tell me dear reader, which version is better. I think it is stronger without the first stanza of the original version. (Which is to say the first stanza is weak, the more I look at it).
"Some hung from trees as their grandfathers did" Is strong. Hi mark , I'm here from PWB. I enjoyed reading this piece as well as the poem for Everette Maddox. Great work!
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