Parades and Beads
New Orleans, 2009

 
I catch various parades, floats with beads being thrown en mass into the stretched out hands
Young girls strut their dance moves
Strangers keep chatting with me
I have countless numbers
Countless cards
But no one keeps my attention
I don’t plan to contact any of them

I sleep in the area that was completely under water after Katrina
Most houses still stand boarded up
Abandoned
Strip malls with the parking lots torn up
Kudzu climbing up and eating certain buildings

A man at the café orders apple pie to go at 5pm
“I’m heading to bed,”
As sleep patterns don’t pattern here
Last night, I napped until 1am and then headed out
Ran into several people I knew in the quarter
 
“After Katrina, I got a check for $4000.  I had just moved to town for school just before it hit.  I didn’t feel like I deserved it, but I cashed it all the same.”
Shares the pretty boy who dreams of running away
Back to France where he felt at home

“I want everyone to read this,” says my server. 
“This is one crazy fucking town.”
I read the short newspaper blurb:
“A man got off the bus and was hit by a car.  The driver of the car got out and shot the man in the abdomen.  His condition was not available.”

 

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