The Town the Wind Blew Away

Cherry

By Silver Spun Sand

Tue, 14 Jul 2015
  • 2406 reads
8 comments
 
“Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
pumped a lot of gas down in New Orleans, 
but I never saw the good side of the city
till I hitched a ride on the river boat queen...”
 
The Mississippi’s quietly seething; 
Cotton Blossom, tugs at her moorings...
paddle-steamer supreme as she is.
Way down Bourbon Street, Brennans –
closed; no tables free.  Not this evening. 
Shops, boarded up; the French Quarter –
a ghost town. Wrought-iron balustrades
soon to fade to reminiscences. ‘Good times, 
upped and rolled away’. No tourists;
no takers for tacky souvenirs today.
 
The Moonwalk shines, electric-blue... 
a slow moving river; magenta
and silver, flowing to infinity
as a water-melon moon, pale, 
wan, and lustreless, slices through
a damson-coloured sky; wages war 
upon an ‘open twenty-four-seven’
kind of a city.  Blind to its waxing
and its waning; indifferent, till now,
to its pull on the tide.
 
Spatters raindrops on black,
plastic sacks at the entrance
to a thrift shop – unheeding 
of the signs; jazz clubs – silent
as a clam.  The blues is what’s on
everybody’s minds.  Rats, scavenge
in the gutter; Big Mac, French fries;
they’re not that fussed with such
rich pickings and the prospect,
so instinct tells them, of even
better times in the offing.
 
Preservation Hall is hushed; holds 
its own sweet breath; sans clarinet, 
sans sax – sans musicians, all. 
Somewhere, on the sidewalk, a kid
shoots up, ‘kisses their creator’; rain 
chokes the levees.  The Superdrome 
is packed to the gills...Except
no Saints, and nobody’s cheering;
outside, the wind kicks up a storm.
For soon, Katrina will come... 
and someone moves on, through
revolving doors.
 
 
 
Certificate 15
Poem
Silver Spun Sand Poems
Nature
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Excellent atmospheric piece.

You won't believe it, but I was in the Dominican Republic when Katrina passed by, but it was just a strong storm - lots of rain and wind. After three months on the island I'd seen a few storms before and this was nothing special, just a happy disappointment after the hype on TV.

But while she was building her muscles over the Gulf of Mexico I was heading back to Europe. I couldn't believe what I saw when I got home, I found it hard to believe it was the same storm.

Well Done!

Ed C

 

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Hi there, Ed...many thanks for reading, and for sharing your more than interesting story about Katrina.  She sure did change a lot of people's lives for ever.  Sometimes when I think back it seems like yesterday, and yet others...a lifetime away.

Tina

 

Submitted by Deliberately Ev... on

I love the imagery in this poem. It's so vivid. I can feel the breeze and smell the smells and be echoes of the past. Brilliant poem

The beat of your heart is the mellifluent rhythm to my soul.

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Hi there, Ae...so thrilled I managed to convey at least some of the atmosphere of the place and time, to you, and that you enjoyed the experience.  Much appreciate you taking the trouble to tell me.smiley

Tina

 

Submitted by Bee on

I think the scary thing in this poem is that it's about to happen. Beautifully pictured.

Bee

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Hi there, Bee.  Yes, it was all about to happen.

I visited New Orleans in the late seventies.  My kids were staying with family friends just outside Philadelphia for the duration of the summer holidays.  My husband and myself, plus a dear aunty, took a trip over there to see them, and after staying for the weekend, the three of us motored on down to New Orleans, where we also have friends.  Once bitten ever smitten. Such an atmospheric place (if you were streetwise, that is...even then) and one afternoon we took a trip on the Cotton Blossom. What a trip that was.  It poured with rain, but it was so hot it didn't matter.  We sampled Brennans...I ate (and spat out) my first oyster, and spent many a long hour touring all the bars and jazz clubs, along with Preservation Hall, of course.  

And then of course, late August, 2005 along came Katrina, and the rest is history.  Those good friends of ours moved State, a year or so later, having lost a close relative in the disaster, and were sick of living in constant fear each hurricane season. 

Many thanks for reading, Bee, and I'm pleased you found it worthwhile.

Tina 

 

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

I like how you take as through these places like a shadow of the wind to follow, beautiful and ominous.

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on

Thanks, Philip.  Pleased I was able to take you there, and bring you back, safely...it seems.

Tina