A Blue Wake For New Orleans

~ dirge villanelle in september
(~ for Gatemouth Brown)



There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo
'Til a wicked wind laid waste —
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do.

There was a windy will and a blue horn — you,
A single name that was left in haste.
There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo.

There is a wailing city, a water high, and you,
Left amid the residues up to your waist —
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do.

There was a loving city in a blue hoodoo
Through a hard-knocks school, a river's waste.
There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo.

A full moon hue, a relation to dew
Jeweling on a spider's bed — so chaste,
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do.

There is a silent city, a blue shirt crew,
The yellow vest of savior, waits.
There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo:
A nothing sound in a city's soul: and a nothing you can do.



Lorna Dee Cervantes
9/12/05