Mary Jo Malo (Forest, Ohio): "New Orleans Elegy: Down in Delacroix"

Blue rose, red brick cottage,
Styx nightmare—
should have passed on the Lethe—
oblivious CNN, numb—
only a matter of time before my eye levees broke,
carried my heart back down to Delacroix—

a gulf between the living and dead—

stilted homes
built on silted islands,
crumble down—
bait and outfitter’s gone,
fishing for babies now—

fuck nature’s seneschal,
Kyoto accord Bush-whacker,
Manchurian Candidate,
hope he perishes covered in black gold,
mired in muck,
lame duck,
choking on all that Texas tea—

no phone, no TV, no radio,
me and my seven babies,
stranded on a dilapidated rope bridge—
three of us can’t carry five—
water rising above our knees—
you choose—

rest in peace my babies,
my Acadian cousins—

© Mary Jo Malo 2005