New Orleans

I wrote this shortly after Hurricane Katrina , I hope you can feel its emotion.

The music of man is silent.
The storm from the sea calmly twirls to shore
Like a gear of God’s great clock.
History and hierarchy vanish;
Class and culture recede into shadows.
A community built upon layers of water
Drowns on its own roots.
Man fights on.

The Huns of the city pillage.
The storm has rolled north,
But the hoard rolls like thunder:
Preying on the defenseless,
Feasting on pain.
The saints of the city save the survivors
As dead bodies float through the streets.
Humanity fights on.

The hum of life returns
Flotsam and jetsam salvaged
Homes purged of the water.
Memories of borrowed time recalled
Lives remembered, reassembled
The citizens bury their memories
Of Nature’s magnificence and fury
New Orleans fights on.