Katrina

I was there when the words came down the pike,
"Katrina's coming, get out of Dodge."
The pronouncement prompted an exodus,
And throngs of believers took to the skies,
Highways and back roads.
By all means available, posses of evacuees,
tightened reins, shifted gears in survival mode -
packed themselves into mini-vans, SUV's,
manned bikes and motorcycles
and made a hasty retreat
from the Crescent City, the Big Easy -
Ignored the up-turned thumbs of carjackers,
posing as hitchhikers to deal with carbon monoxide,
and gridlock.

The oracles had spoken:
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox,
The mouthpieces of mainstream news,
From Media Olympus (instigators of blacks and losers),
Tossed Natalee and Cindy aside like flimsy rag dolls,
And extolled Katrina:
"Evacuate, evacuate". Hunker down and die
was the mode, "Or leap-frog over the dead and dying."

Questions crammed my mind,
Not so much of Katrina, but the, seemingly,
the idiotic 1803 purchase:
The Napoleon/Jefferson connection,
Signed, sealed, delivered -
Land sold and bought, ranging from the Mississippi River,
To the Rocky Mountains and from Canada
To the Gulf of Mexico. Sold for 15 mill
To a mere three hundred and seventeen year old:
A Nation onto itself in a bowl below sea level,
An acquisition Of Mulattoes, Creoles,
Octoroons and Quadroons;
Acquired, the French tongue, pidgin,
Ebonics; voodoo/hoodoo, carrion superstition -
The merrymaking Mardi Gras -gumbo, Cajun, jambalaya;
King Oliver, Kid Ory, "Old Hickory" Jackson
And Huey Long.

Questions, doubts, hope:
"How High's the water, Mama."
'Four feet high and rising,
five feet high and rising,
The Walls of Jericho's been breached,
Casinos and churches surrounded by a moat,
Bodies and debris all afloat,
Six feet high and rising.
Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink.'

Children waded in the water,
Adults holding babies and possessions
Waded in Muddy Waters;
No Bridge Over troubled waters.
AC's and TV's, power lines and traffic signs,
Surfboards and skateboards, tampons and condoms,
Vomit and feces toileted in rising water.

Water, water everywhere and nary a drop to drink.

More so than her elder siblings,
Katrina was mean-spirited, irascible, incorrigible -
Temperamentally tumultuous - unpredictable,
A robust tropical storm whose full-blown strength,
Commandeered the swirl of whirling winds,
Dared Neptune and that "Old Man River"
To impede her advance as she stormed ashore;
Ran amok in Louisiana, Mississippi and parcels of Alabama;
Sideswiped New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi,
And sucker-punched Mobile.

"How high's the water, Mama?"
'Nine feet high and rising. Ten feet high and rising.
Twelve feet and rising. Water, water everywhere
Nary a drop to drink!'

Afloat, rats and roaches, cats and dogs,
Magnolias and seaweed -
Flooded, "The House of the Rising Sun",
"Blueberry Hill", and Ward 9;
Adrift, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn,
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

I was there when the words came down the pike:
"Evacuate, evacuate. Katrina's eye is on us."
I was there when the entrance
Beside the Golden Door of the Super Amphitheater closed;
Refused the tired, the poor, huddled masses,
The wretched refuse, the homeless refugees,
To be exiled to highway ramps and rooftops,
Waving the Red, White and Blue,
And crayoned signs scrawled on cardboard and sheets,
Begging to be rescued by any means available.
Vigilant observers craning necks,
Looked for chariots, buses, iron-horses,
Looked for UFO's, and whirlybirds to lower Jacob's Ladder;
Prayed for Moses to part the waters;
Searched the horizon for Noah's Ark.

Water, water, everywhere, nary a drop to drink.

I was there when the words came down the pike:
"Help is on the way. Help is on the way."
And desperate voices inquired: 'How long? How long?'
And the repeated refrain: "Not long! Not long!"
And help arrived: National Guardsmen, hardened combat troops,
Some dispatched from Fallujah - armed to the hilt.
Tanks and Black hawks circled the Super Amphitheater
For unknown, unidentified snipers, looters,
murders and rapists
Said to exist by Media Merchants,
Spinning half-truths from News lets Olympus,
Agenda driven, distorter's, condescending babblers:
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, UPI, AP, Reuters,
Dot com, dot org, dot gov.

Stories, stories everywhere and nary a drop of truth.