New Orleans October 2, 2008
Posted by Tel in Placed.Tags: new orleans, Poem, poems, Poetry
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Pre-Katrina: 2003
we are beyond our graduate years
out past the outlet malls
and beyond the Appalachian fog
will we ever make it back to New Orleans?
a layover finds us
knee-high in momma’s home cookin’,
will we ever make it back to New Orleans?
Post-Katrina: 2006
we make it back to New Orleans
but where is New Orleans?
on the shores of the lake
we no longer find student life
the world is desolate
a burger king, taco bell and popeye’s
are dessimated
lives lost;
an area that locals warned us to not drive through
no longer exists
the once-paved-roads have turned to dust
the elements have played a savage tic-tac-toe
with X’s in walls and O’s in rooftops
you’ve lost
but you’ve not lost your soul
we are back in New Orleans
© Telly McGaha
with X’s in walls and O’s in rooftops
you’ve lost
I love that line. I have long been in love with New Orleans as well. The city calls to me, she and I must have been one in another life. The cats that emerge in the gated Jackson Square under moonlight are poetry to me. I miss New Orleans, even when I return there. While she hasn’t lost her soul, true, to me, it’s as if the city is possessed and her spirit is just not the quite same. An American tragedy. A ghost town of sorts, fighting to emerge once more, but in my view not yet winning that fight. I’m pulling for her. Thanks for this poem in her honor.
I wrote the first half when my partner and I moved out of New Orleans in 2000. I love it there; the second half I wrote after revisiting it exactly a year after Katrina. I think you’re absolutely right about the city. I hope and pray it’s able to return to its old grandeure. I’ve lived in and visited a lot of Ameirican cities, and she is still my favorite.