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Kara Rose Trojan Sep 2011
There was a squandering ember that climbed her spinal chord
and lit the deteriorating birchwood on the peach-fuzzed tea lamps.

When those stairwells cramped and swelled with staggered liquid terraces
in the foundational pin-cushion that cradled family after family.

Woe begone chants that railed support beams moaning under elemental abuse.

A litter of ghost kittens coiling underfoot where the rug
used to yawn before the grandfather clock,
now senile and rotting with absent-minded tick-tocks.

Inside her streetcorner, the music was that
monkey hopping to street ***** blue notes on somber ropes.

The air thick with the regal, chunky vibe
of batting eyes, flirty sighs, and bourbon.

Between the buildings again...
embraced with the same warm feeling that
entrances your fingertips, lips, and ears when within a man's arms.

In this city, Love is those two birds on that same powerline
that bowed and ebbed with summer's sweet sigh.
Brent Kincaid Feb 2016
In old New Orleans
Musical lumberjacks
Legitimizing their axes;
Just piano, clarinet,
Bass and the drums.
Bringing jazz back
And then some.

The cat could play
That skinny long black horn,
Hotter clarinet than
Anybody ever born,
He kept hitting notes
So pure and high
We felt each note
In our eyes!

And, if you chance by
Remember this,
They don’t allow dancing.
But when the drummer
Makes works those skins
And makes them talk out
There is plenty of toe-tapping
And nobody ever walks out.

Then, when the guy
Plays that bass fiddle
He adds an underscore
To top bottom and middle.
It’s an underbeat of grace
That will fill the rest space
And the hearts of all
In this overcrowded place.

Vintage jazz roars out
Of an old, old piano
Played by a happy madman
With fingers afire, he knows
He’s got them hooked;
He’s making them wild
As he wails on those keys
He looks out and smiles
And he puts the Satchmo touch
On those old-timey songs

And once in a while
They ask us to sing along.
For the past forty-six years
Those ugly plastered walls
Have never hear so many
Gratefully rendered curtain calls
From an audience of clerks and swells.
On Bourbon Street’s Fritzel’s.
Through hurricanes and beers
Like stepping back a hundred years.
Fats is still playing, Bessie singing
Original jazz music is still swinging.
FORTUNES READ the sign displayed
TRINKETS, CHARMS AND SPELLS
The store had not been here yesterday
shades of candles, books and bell
Drapes were hung from side to side
The windows all were dark
Where was this place a day ago?
Just yards from Salem Park
Gothic kids sat on the stoop
Waiting, hoping to get in
Were they wishing for an audience
Or to confess a mortal sin
The door was red, it's number black
The name of M. Laveau
Was etched into the window pane
It stood out like fresh, new snow
I thought "how kitsch", M. Laveau
New Orleans voodoo Queen
four hundred years since she had died
The best witch the world had seen
don't worry though, the address was
Not numbered 6 6 6
That would have been too hokey
Even my poems aren't that slick
My spider senses tingled
Just a line, not something real
But every now I get sensations
It's just something that I feel
I chose to pass the goth kids
pale, lethargic on the stoop
I figured something's coming
And I'm jumping through it's hoop
Something wicked this way comes
I thught as I went in
But, I was greeted by a little man
About four foot tall and thin
the bell rang loud behind me
As the door closed there behinda
and as the light diminishd
I was standing, slightly blind
The man just stood there staring
then he spoke, a tiny voice
"I know just why you've entered"
"Welcome, Billy Boyce"
I stood there, then I backstepped
How did this many know my name?
I knew it wasn't magic
It was just a parlour game
As my eyes became adjusted
I saw nothing in the room
Just this tiny little elfling
And some shelves, there in the gloom
I said, "I saw your sign, sir"
FORTUNES TOLD, and I'm intrigued
"Can you really tell my fortune?"
"Or are you playing on folks needs?"
"Not me sir, I'm just waitng"
"You see the mistress is not here"
"But, if some silver hits the counter"
"I am sure that she is near"
I thought again of M. Leveau
The Witch Queen, so long dead
But, the way he spoke about her
Seemed to fill me full of dread
I thought of charms and trinkets
But, the empty shelves displayed
Not a bell, a book, or candle
Just a scarf, just slightly frayed
"She can answer all your questions"
"Take the doubt away from life"
"She will open up your minds door"
"She will remove all of your strife"
He could see that I was pensive
I turned and saw something was wrong
Where I knew that I had entered
The front doorway, now was gone
He bade me sit, prepare my thoughts
The Mistress would soon show
I would not have to ask my questions
He said The Mistress, just would know
I thought, Ok, I'll play along
someone's gone to lots of work
But, there was no rooms or doorways
For the Voodoo Queen to lurk
He lit a candle on the counter
Not the window, like Elton John
He told me turn with eyes closed
And when I finished, he was gone
The man left just the candle
Some small match book and a key
Then the wind blew out the tiny flame
And I knew, I had to see
So, I funbled for the matchbook
Lit the candle once again
When the room was now alighted
I had that feeling once again
I knew I was not here alone
Someone else was here, but who
"would you like to take a seat dear sir?"
I just froze, what should I do?
I turned to face the speaker
A young lady, all alone
I just stood there, dumbstuck, staring
Like I had just been turned to stone
I sat as she requested,
In a chair, not there before
she said, "I'll tell your fortune"
"And if you want, I'll tell you more"
She said "you've many questions"
"I can read them in your mind"
"But, you must sit down and focus"
"This is going to take some time"
She spole to me of angels,
both the bad kind and the good
She told me of my watchers
Some who lingered closely in the woods
She told me things no one would know
Unless they'd seen them done
I felt like I'd been torn apart
Shot with a bullet from no gun
She said, "I am the one you think"
"Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen"
I said "I don't believe you"
She said "can you explain, what you have seen?"
I told her no, she had me there
But, why had she picked me
She said, "you have it backwards sir"
"It was your choice to see me"
Paul Prudhomme, New Orleans
The Saints and Dr. John
Katrina and a second line
All the people that were gone
She said "those thought have called me"
"You are someone who believes"
"You will bring life to my city"
"Before you make your choice to leave"
"through task and deed you will bring back"
"New Orleans from the dead"
"You will breath life to this wormy corpse"
"You will help her move ahead"
I told her "your'e mistaken"
"I believe you've got it wrong"
She said "I know of what I'm talking"
"You were singing my favorite song"
The Witch Queen of New Orleans
laughed and said I'd know just when
to start the resurrection
When to build this town again
The wind came up, the room went dark
I was alone in here once more
I again lit the old candle
Saw the thin man and the door
He said "you saw the mistress?"
I told him, she was here
He said " I always miss her"
I said "she'll be back I'm sure, no fear"
He said "you got your answers?"
I told him that I  was not sure
She told me things about me
That I did not know before
I said she laid a challenge
To bring NOLA from the brink
She gave me more questions than just answers
And I needed time to think
He said "I know...she works that way"
And then he bade me well
And the front door slightly opened
And I heard a tiny bell
I walked to it and turned around
I was the only one inside
Had I really seen this little man?
Was the Witch Queen just a lie?
I left the store, the goth kid was gone
I was on the street alone
Was this my imagination?
Or just a story I had known?
I walked a bit and turned to look
Down the street back to the store
FORTUNES TOLD was out of sight
M. LAVEAU was gone once more
I don't know how I'd bring it back
Would the Saints come marching in?
I think it's just up to the people
To breath life in this town again
Blues and Louis Armstorng
The French Quarter, savoir faire
Laissez les bons temps rouler
Listen to Marie Laveau and enjoy all that is there.
Robert Peck Dec 2012
It filled up the hOuse
It weNt pAssed my Neck
StArted At my kNees
It filled up my chest
All iN the Streets
Like A pOOl tO swim iN
Most swimmers woN't dive iN the pOOL thAt I beeN iN
***** flOOd wAter thAt stretched fOr miLes
They didN't sigN checks Now their pOckets wiLL smiLe
Our hOmes wAshed AwAy And ALL thAt I kNOw
Flights tOOk us tO pLAces with twO feet Of sNOw
The cuLture we hAve mAkes this plAce we cALL hOme
New Orleans LouisianA welcOme tO the terrOr dOme
BeAutifuL hOuses next tO thOse untOuched
SprAyed X's On dOOrs stiLL six yeArs LAter
Did nOt hAve tO be there if he put his nAme On A pAper
New Orleans New Orleans the plAce we cALL hOme
We mAde it thrOugh Betsy sO hOw wOuLd yOu kNOw
Building it bAck with Nothing but LOve
WAit (God = LOve) sO yOu dO the mAth AbOve
Jake Spacey Jan 2013
blank save for the handprint
above the desk where some soul
lost their grip and left themselves.

soap so coarse it punctured skin
while water sprinkled out
to cause an incident.

down in the drain clogged
with hair where some soul yanked
itself so hard it forgot some strands.

a bald apparition with a broken tailbone

painted red and glazed like clay

locked in a furnace when it hoped,

from the covers before the alarm,

to float away...
my room in the hospital down in 'ouisianer
Earl Cooper May 2019
Property,
Art is my,
this....****** is my,
I am not your....,  
Property,
High squeals and sun rays coating sight,
heart beats slow as the joke reach its peak,
but you are too much to teach,
Property,
Art is my,
this....****** is my,
I am NOT your...,
Property,
spontaneous in arousing ways,
Paris for breakfast,
Bali for lunch,
The moon for dinner,
But you are all about your Inner..self,
Property,
Art is my,
this......****** is my,
I am not your,
Property,
Adult...business..care,
you have the scent of over driven adolescence everywhere,
but taking steps back...you're too attached,
PROPERTY,
art is my....,
this....****** is my,
my time is my,
my home is my,
my body is my,
I........am not your,
property.
I seen she's gotta have it and felt very inspired
undefined Apr 2016
Making my way down the road
in a story yet to unfold
Dogs started barking, so I sat down
and kicked off my shoes

Stranger say, "Boy ya carry quite  load"
is the journey worth it's weight in gold?
So I picked up my guitar
and started singing the blues
----------------------------------------------------

I been on this road so long,
can't remember quite where it began.
I held on this guitar so hard,
now it's my only friend.

Well, I been ramblin' up and down,
trying to find an end.
I aint been Home
sense I can't remember when.
-------------------------------------------------
Been all over this country, coast to coast,
more times than I can count.
Playin' guitar, drinkin' and a fussing,
trying to find my way out.

I started out at the bottom, not a penny to my name,
and let the world do their best.
I came here with nothing,
and I still got most of it left.
Am/Dm-7/Am/E-7
Am/Dm-7/Am-E-Am

[ch]
Am/Dm-7/Am/E-7
Am/Dm-7/F-G-Am
james nordlund Jun 2020
All saw united **** of assassin's Gov't's premeditated taking
a knee for 9 minutes on George Floyd's neck, the **** cop
calmly looking into the camera, an assassination for many
reasons, who's seeing past the 'show', following the $?

Ebony, ivory supremacies repeating their victory of 2016's
(Only) Black Lives Matters participation in the Int'l criminal
conspiracy's installing **** into the Black House, etc.,
determining their dividing the nation, in perfect harmony.

Like the bi-headed, Utin and Utin's ****, global axi of
supposed power has re-established, East, West, you're
either totalitarian or not-see, and if not you're murdered
by both, now either Black or white supremacist, or die.

For 15 years ebony has dictated Caucasians call themselves
"white", "be proud of being white", make believe they have
"white privilege", to the benefit of division, ivory, when
there's no "whites", and almost no non-repubs thought it.

That while the reality is their class war against the lower-
middle-class to poor, the boot on our neck, by the police/
military/intelligence complexes, is all 23 flavors of the
baskin + robbins of supremacies, usa, the global oligarchy.

Criminal insanity, that illegally installed the Int'l crime
family **** into the Blackhouse: repubs, conservatives, global
hackers, wicked leaks, J. Assange, usa intelligence/military/
police/prison industrial complexes, J. Comey, R. Barr, C. + K.

West, J. Stein, 13 % of Bernie or Bust 'Bots voting **** and
another % that stopped the youth vote from getting behind a
"not perfect" Hillary, "boat loads" of organized crime $ from
Russia, Ukraine, white supremacy, sinos, linos, ginos, ainos,

dinos, Moore for hawking 'trumpland' entitled book for months
before the election while projecting **** "would win", a % of
the elite of the black supremacy, etc., just allowed the not-
sees, totalitarians to destroy, ****** at an increased clip,

now add premeditated pandemic, ebony/ivory dictated duality,
racial environmental justice "only my environment matters"
movement and voila, the end of the climate crisis movement,
total extermination of humanity to it's extinction, in a can.

It's not a coinky-**** that the "knee" was taken upon the
news that "Biden was considering not choosing a woman of the
right color, Black".  For Ebony figures "if they're not get-
ting a Black president now, through a Black VP pick, they

might as well just put up with 4 more years of ****.  Biden,
Sanders, Warren, etc., will have aged out, Booker, Harris,
Patrick, etc., will be sitting pretty for the 'once you go
Black you never go back' prez job.", same as it ever was.  

Even though the 'show' was able to pull a Mattis out of their
hat, supposedly legitimizing not just the military, but the
republican conspiracy, during this 15th anniv. of the 'use'
of Katrina to "clean out the bowl", and "let the river take

what's the river's", exterminate the lower-middle-class to
poor, gentrify, militarize NOLA by purposely not preventing
the failing of the levees by 2005, by Reagan "we got 300
buses but no drivers" Nagin, Gov. Blanco, etc., to the tune

of mass-murdering going on 3000 predominantly lower-middle-
class to poor, mostly people of color, like king george and
his ****, cheney didn't the terrorist attacks of 9-11-01 and
serial murderers masquerading as cops don't daily terrorist

attacks, their one-sided and continual coverage of the
"current controversy", as ebony and the 'Blackish' lead
actor called the premeditated murderer of some women, ******,
kidnapper of 100's more, B. Cosby, was suffering from, is

clear, keeping the faux opening news out.  No ebony racist
comments, like the Houston Police Chief who repeatedly stated
throughout the day that "the looters were white" only, were
even remarked on.  The lock, ebony and ivory, the fix is in,

if it ain't fixed don't break it.  All the smoke and mirrors,
song and dance, show, weapons of mass distraction, to take
the news cycles off the too early "opening of the country",
pandemic, by ebony for ivory, in the world can't change the

facts, even though it's death toll is only 111,000 by their
accounts, actually 122,000, and there's going on 2 million
infected, there will be an extra 100,000 murdered by ****'s
policies and lack thereof in handling his virus circus.

That there's more prisoners, defacto-slave laborers now than
the number of slaves at the height of the slave trade, here,
not spoken about because ebony, ivory are both the corporate
structure, global oligarchy that it enriches, won't change.

See how the assassinations of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,
George Floyd, have paid ivory by ebony, like they did in 2016
to stop there being a minimum of 16 years straight of 'white'
prezs, Hillary and Tom.  Their deaths and the aftermath being

used now to cover up the premeditated ****** of 10,000's of
Blacks by ****, because ebony + ivory, working together in
perfect harmony to fill every news cycle now and for months,
want 'the economy open', to make them more $ now, instead

of saving all those Black lives who don't actually matter to
them at all, 'cause it's all about the benjamins, instead.  
Biden should pick a progressive woman to cement Bernie
voters, if not, then a liberal one of color, no particular hue.  

'De-funding police dept.s', etc., should wait until after the
election, unless ebony's insisting **** wins to get a Black
prez in 2024, instead.  The determined Winter of our death,
extermination to come, will surpass their class warfare's

liquidation of ases and assets of the masses en masse's
increased rate of blitzkreiging Gaia's kids to their
extinction.  Now it seems too late, their 'use' of pandemic
to subjugate the world to survival instead of alival,

exigency instead of humanity, has closed eyes, minds, pulled
the rug out....  But, "...we(e),..." can't be over-confident,
apathetic, cynical, complacent, nihilistic, pessimistic,
burned-out, for supposed anarchy is the global bi-polar axi

of supposed power's mutual modus operendi, to determine
la machine's chaos, and the division it causes, increases
vacuum-up economics to the global oligarchy, replicating the
'show' that must goes on, including colonialism, hegemony,

patriarchy, imperialism, supremacy, conspiracy, etc..  If you
didn't vote Hillary you voted Utin and his **** be installed
into the Black House.  There's public records of who did and
didn't do what, please stop them from doing it again, or die.

Protect, occupy, GOTV, "you can't dismantle the man's house
with the man's tools", Lordes, notseeism and totalitarianism.  
"The root of all oppression lies in (supposed) science",
Gandhi.  If you're not taking bullets you're making them.  
Viva la vida, solidaridad, la evolucion   :)   reality
The normal they want to return to, northern malaise, euro-centrism and projections of academia, a blood disease, have always flown in the face of necessity, progress and the need for humanity to even be allowed to exist.  Yet, now with coronaing of everyone going on, that desire for normalcy and return of norms takes on new hues; some very human and even desirable.  That while the purposeful too early opening of the country has already determined that being pandemiced is the new normal for at minimum a year (possibly permanently); until we get a vaccine or more life-saving treatment possibilities.  This has all opened many eyes to the disparaging realities of pre-pandemic America, where the life expectancy of people of color, and more so, the lower-middle-class to poor, were predominantly still only being addressed by their getting the establishment’s projected healthcare for them, eat st and die.  That goes for sociological maladies as well, for e.g., the lower-middle-class to poor suffering oppression from serial murderers masquerading as cops; police brutality tantamount to a incurable birth defect of all poor.  The injustice system and their dictating everybody accused of anything must plead guilty to a lesser charge or face the draconian rage of la machine’s dictating they get little lousy representation in fixed trials that most of the time determine ******* up or false convictions and incarcerations unequal to the reality of the circumstances that took place.  I wish I weren’t diffabled to the point where I can’t be at the front of these demonstrations for real change taking place now; as I had been for decades in the past- yet, still am doing all I can.  Thanx to you and All for doing all you do; have a great day    :)    reality
Nathan MacKrith Feb 2021
The world grew sick
it happened so quick
and so the people prayed
in spiritual foundations laid

the people went to see
the healers to be set free
hurt souls seek relief
and beyond belief-
     ~the healers got sick

songs lathered in Purell
as the death tolls swell
ringing out the Sioux band’s
cared for with gloved hands
    ~hands that caught rain
       now wracked with pain

Standing Rock tumbles down
as fits of coughs drown
    “My girl, I don’t know what to do-“
the words of a dying healer
once free to roam
in death
kept far away from her  home

When they pass on
all that knowledge gone
the words and ways of old
lost as voices go cold

Breath taken away
also yesterday
is gone around the bend
ways of old set to end
     -the sacred fire untended

No more secret Candy
or cherished smiles
veterans vanquished
peacemakers in pieces:

Porcupine
Bear Soldier
Running Antelope
Cheryl and Jesse Taken Alive

lovers from the start
Cheryl and Jesse died
only a month apart
holes in the Taken Alive heart

Their moccasins remain still
big shoes for others to fill
Standing Rock’s hills rolling
as graves keep filling
    
  ~the healers got sick
     hands that caught rain
     now wracked with pain
     the sacred fire untended

... still, the fire burns
out of the ashes, Nola, a child
of those Taken Alive learns
to hear the call of the wild

Young pup’s paws will fill the boots in time
though Standing Rock’s still,
still it stands
rain to be caught by fresh hands
new ears record the tree’s chime

“We’re still here,” Nola said
Taken Alive stands still
at Standing Rock
~
NM
01/15/21
The Indigenous people of North America are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Indigenous elders are dying at a rate of 2:1 in comparison to White North Americans.

This poem was inspired by the true lives and stories of the people of Standing Rock and other Indigenous communities.
undefined Feb 2022
A girl I dated once called me an "emotionless robot." Yesterday I woke up screaming, last night I fell asleep while crying... Guess she was wrong.

Fingers freezing.
Paint on a smile for passer-bys.
Keep my feet moving down the street
to PJ's for coffee,
for my daily "Good Morning."

Someone told me a song I played was "sad,"
I told them it was the happiest one I had.

The little market store on St. Louis is letting me stock the cooler again this afternoon.
So, I'll be able to buy another drink tonight.

The mornings are stiff,
and the late night shivers with cold.
1987 is the code to find the restroom.
Coffee warms my disposition.

Words stay trapped in my pen,
I start writing sometimes,
and don't know how to end.

... (i'm sorry)
Journal entry today.
A couple wuz beading up
for a chi chi day
She drunkenly laughed
**** stained her dress

A olive skin woman
in golden glitter pasties
Offered neon *** shots
near 10 in the morning

A chubby girl dressed
in a black fishnet body suit
selling face paintings
while her supple *******
Jiggled in your face

A black man occupied
A most different plain
Sat behind two chess boards
wasn't gettin paid

Two SAP cars parked
At Royal Sonesta curb
idling to taxi exec sappers
back to the friendly skies

****** whippin glitter girl
Shakin her money maker
Lookin hard at her wares
What the hell she sellin?

Across the street
miked up bible thumper
Doin his groove thing
Raged against the ***** show
Ca ching ca ching ca ching

I ducked a bity bee
Flying at my face
I'm walkin Bourbon
Full of mighty grace

Hard Rock Guys
selling cannabis lollis
crowded corners bumpin
Ain't no trollies

boom box blastin
back beat samples
Who Dat Jazz?
muskrat rambles

Three card monte
Obstructive beggers
Kids banging on
5 gallon drums
Gimme a dime mister

Louie Armstrong Park
Congo Square
Where it at?
Gotta get there

***** Glitter still barking
Mardi ****** Gras tees
Snapchat Me Your *****
Ducked another bee

Kid put his two pails
In mid of the rue
Gotta pay the toll
Whatcha gunna do?

Music:
Mardi Gras Music

From NOLA Notes
2/18/17
scribbled from notes of jazz hajj
Lindy Apr 2016
Nola I came crawling
fingernails scratching at your broken concrete
blast-ridden ears numb to
Music at your center -
Now I lay myself down in your canals
Along your muddy parks
naked; indiscreet
I swirl in trumpet music
Eddy down echo streets
With funeral processions -
celebrations of Lives worth living
Again and again.
I would fold myself neatly
In lines like paper airplanes
to cut through your wet air
like a deft tongue parting lips
gasp and gasp again,
I want to deep dive in cerulean.
Cedric McClester Apr 2015
By: Cedric McClester

Better days lie ahead
At least that’s what I thought he said
While on a tour of New Orleans
But what I think he really means
Is things are better than before
Yet we know he should do much more
To rectify the situation
Nola’s still part of our nation
Better days lie ahead
For the homeless not the dead
Whose bloated bodies floated by
In a way no one should die
Cos FEMA wasn’t energetic
Their response was just pathetic
Showing up three days late
Having victims sit and wait

Better days lie ahead
We’re tired of the rhetoric
Just tell us when it’s getting fixed

While his friends are getting paid
He claims real progress has been made
There’s little progress we can see
Being made for you and me
But he says things are going fine
He’s either crazy or he’s blind
Cos progress has been slow to date
And people are still forced to wait
For the help they’re supposed to get
Most of them are at their end’s wit
Trying to figure how to make it
And some of them just plain can’t take it
The levees are still inadequate
And that don’t help us not one bit
Who know when the next hurricane
Will bring flood waters and torrential rain

Better days lie ahead
We’re tired of the rhetoric
Just tell us when it’s getting fixed

He comes down here for photo opps
But hasn’t pulled out all the stops
And mean while we’re still suffering
And wondering where the hell he’s been
With all the help he said we’d get
That hasn’t materialized quite yet
And we’re still waiting to rebuild
To have our empty stomachs filled
But all we get is rhetoric
And that can’t buy us ****
I don’t know and so I’m guessin
But in this there must be some lesson
That I must have missed in school
Call me stupid or a fool
Fool me once but not again
Which begs to ask the question when

Better days lie ahead
We’re tired of the rhetoric
Just tell us when it’s getting fixed

Better days lie ahead
At least that’s what I thought he said
While on a tour of New Orleans
But what I think he really means
Is things are better than before
Yet we know he should do much more
To rectify the situation
Nola’s still part of our nation
Better days lie ahead
For the homeless not the dead
Whose bloated bodies floated by
In a way no one should die
Cos FEMA wasn’t energetic
Their response was just pathetic
Showing up three days late
Having victims sit and wait



(c) Copyright 2015, Cedric McClester.  All rights reserved.
Better Days was my take on the government response to Hurricane Katrina under George "Dubya" Bush's leadership, or lack thereof.
Up on a tight rope, tonight,
Are we, Leon?”
I am out there with you, Brother.
I am in the weeds with you, Babaloo.
So, where did you find them?
Those Shaka Zulu
Warrior Women?
“Nola sue tanga,
Soo galla galla bee.
Nala secala
Na saka saka secala,”
It’s real trance music, Old Timer!
You really straddled the generations,
Didn’t you?
From “Alley Oop” to
“Stranger in a Strange Land.”
Leon, you are one cool dude.
M Elee Sep 2018
i saw a homeless man
fidget with a twist tie
the way i fidget with my rings
crossing bourbon street
alive with the fare-thee-well
of sober times.
with weak conviction,
i admit the stars crossed one of us
and cut the other a break.
we are both drunk,
we are both merry.
we are embroiled in the microcosm
New Orleans has to offer
one day a year, guilt-free.
he jingles his cup for coins
and i show my **** for beads
and i will be bedecked in glitter
and jewels,
and he will sleep on the stoop.
but we both find our shoes drenched
in the mysterious gray waters
that plague that street tonight.
with the guise of my beads
i feel like a queen
but it would make no difference
if i were a homeless man
fidgeting with a twist tie
on bourbon street,
jingling my cup for coins
and sleeping on the stoop.
Jackie Mead Jan 2018
From NOLA to Charlotte and onto Heathrow
That was the journey we had chosen to go
Upon arrival and customs cleared
We see a board all destinations confirmed here
We find departure to Charlotte it's clear, delay is upon us, we may not make our connection we fear
Noone around to ask or confirm, no customer service to help find our way round
Were British so to the bar we go
Fill up our glasses, take it real slow
Just like we learned in NOLA this week life is short so make it sweet.
Delay at new orleans Airport means we may not make our connection back to the UK, can't worry about what will be, will be, hopefully all will be fine but let's see how it goes
james nordlund May 2018
Their Trumpler wags his finger, pounds his chest, does abhor and detest, yet,
Unlike the rest, I refuse to protest the pomposity of his demeanor, regress.
For, as I wrote three decades ago, they think with spooned nose, speak with
forked tongue, yet, '...we(e),...', will not be undone, only if you still will.
A nation's youth sacrificed to the dogs of war, and it's keep, plundered deep,
can give no more to ravenous avarice ******, the global oligarchy, seated,
then entrenched in our Gov't's executive branch, dismissing all who won't cower.
In 2016 you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a revolutionary or radical,
because 'Hillary wasn't pure, perfect', their excuse for helping install Trumpler
in the Kluckahouse, now where's their sound and fury, their installed feurher
states, African countries are 'shitholes', now, immigrants are 'animals',
our nations heroes 'aren't', ad infinitum, where's the 'Bernie or Bust 'Bots'
'revolution', declared in the beginning of 2016 by him, now. The dinos, sinos,
linos, ginos ainos declare their allegiance to the illusion of non-violence,
steadfastly, as it's evidently better than the delusion of violence, while their
invisible coup's installing the king kong sized terrible two as emperor, along
with the FBI, NSA, CIA, NSC, Assange, wikileaks, hackers globally, remocrat
Conspiracy, immoral minority, Putin's puppets All, is the most violent event
purposely unprevented since the levees in NOLA were let fail, the unnecessary
unending war in Iraq started, and king george and his ****, cheney purposely
didn't prevent the attacks on 9-11-01, with the republican conspiracy elite.
Cloven covens of their actual religion of materialism, which they all practice
behind masks of 'used' religions, worldviews, spiritualities, clustering in
their conclaves, meet, with unremarkable tidings, the time is neigh for all
to die from climate change, decimated environs, undrinkable water, unedible
food, unbreathable air, unarable land, their 'final solution', ending humanity,
is at hand. Still, the machinations of our technocracy's machinings of human
beings, succeed in their device's designs, bring us ever closer to their
extreme narcissism's lack of way, nihilism, their lifeless choices, hedonism,
and their self-possessed, la machine's, language of 0's and 1's, always tolling
for their bottom lines needs, exigency replacing humanity per force of self-
programming, tragically, no? Does the fiber of your being, the sinew of it's
meaning shout, as to forever echo on, no? Whilst words, symbols, also being
paths of study, can't lead to self-emancipation, for the intellect can't lead,
as the life does not follow, if one allows questions to be, until answers evolve,
they can inform perception's growth, to signs and meanings along the way, uplift
vision. The corporate structure's convolution, and it's devolutionary direction,
proffer otherwise. As his heart's being ripped from the heart in the heart
of the heartland, in his mind's eye, she still stands, hair as if ablazed by
the truest wind that e'r blowed, her hand ever unwavers, raised, with it's torch
yet unschorched, it's light still a beacon of hope and the liberty that birthed
it, to all entering our NY's harbor, if death needs be proud, then let it be, now.
As vernal, the melodies of nature evolve us, let's not forget, urgently separating
the real religion which all religions, etc., are a front for, avarice, from the
State, as dictated by our Constitution, must be done, if not humanity's extinction
will result, and almost all until then was just the premeditated mass-****** of
7 billion in ever more various and myriad forms. Viva la evolution.   reality
(Written while watching Loreena McKennitt's ineffable 'Nights from the Alhambra',
(for her "...it means mystery, eternity, and represents the human spirit") on
Netflix.  Especially apt, due to Pruitt's criminally insane administration of the
EPA, her ethereal, ephemeral, while Earthen, song, 'Bonny Portmore', imho. reality)


("To walk in seasons is to question, A flower is opening", Basho.  
"Let questions be questions, answers will come", Martha Graham.)
james nordlund Jul 2020
**** said, "people wouldn't have the pandemic if they weren't tested".  
If he were a comic he'd get this advice, your policy jokes are like a
bridge too far that's not far enough, to nowhere, you'd **** there, go.

Still, he continues to refuse to use the DPA to nationalize producing,
distributing effective testing, PPEs, which would save taxpayers 100's
of billions of dollars overspent now on gouged prices, and 100's of

thousands of their lives, he continues to preach his 'corona schmorona'
policies at his super-spreader of disease rallies, exterminating repubs.
Our outrage can turn the tide, as can a term or two of President Joe.

We've got 614 billionaires here, why can't "...we(e),..." inspire them to
replace our 'should a, could a, would a' situation with a win, win one.
They walk into a bank, walk out with 100 million dollar loans, that can

purchase the combining of medical manufacturers to do what the not
use of DPA didn't, supply States with all the testing, PPEs they need at
a decent price, the guaranteed market would do the same for the loans.

A nation working together can save those 100's of thousands mass-murdered by the repubs coviding, premeditatedly, and those whose
ases, assets will be liquidated by homelessness, hunger, crime, stress.

Only if we insist the model of mass theft of tax dollars by purposely not preventing things is tossed: Lion of The Senate running against Carter = October Surprise, Iran-Contra-gate; S+L gate; Y2K; Silicon Valley Start-

up Bust; Attacks on 9-11-01; unnecessary unending wars; '05 filling the bowl by Katrina, NOLA, by non-reinforcing of levees for decades; '07 great recession; '10 manufacturing of tea party by ebony, ivory, the

Black, white supremacies, working in perfect harmony with the multi-media conspiracy, as they're doing now; '16 non-prevention of hacking of election, if you didn't vote Hillary you voted to illegally install Utin and

his **** into the BlackHouse; '17's seeing **** end the WhiteHouse pandemic response team, cut CDC's funding, etc., to allow the virus to take elderly, poor lives, ***** nil. The insanity can be stopped, will you?
"The root of all oppression lies in (supposed) science", "be the change you want to see in the world", Gandhi.  They're going to ****** your family, if not with this virus than another, unless you protect, occupy, GOTV, "you can't dismantle the man's house with the man's tools", Lourdes: classism, notseeism, totalitarianism, defining power as manipulation through to genocide, instead of learning through to consciousness raising.  Copy, share as you will.  Thanx for all you do and don't.  Be well.  Viva la vida, solidaridad, la evolucion   :)   reality
Arcassin B May 2014
BY ARCASSIN BURNHAM




im a bee,
getting Nectar,
Your a tree,
Producing sap,
im deploited,
overwhelmed,
So fustrated to the fact,
That you worry me,
And im just doin me,
im trying to find my identity,
and your an officer just searching me,
Why you worry me,
im just a chilled young boy,
from the nola unfortunetly,
and when theres nothing to do,
im me,
why dont you just be you.
http://arcassin.blogspot.com/2012/12/im-me-just-be-you.html
Katherine Brooks Jun 2020
We just wanna stay where we are
normally functioning
unwistfully listening
Level willed to the earth

Ladders incompletely climbing
in front of stairs that seem
impossible to walk on, sometimes
This tundras just in our minds

We seal the deal
underneath wandering times
not invoking questioning ones
Simply staying in a room

In a group homeliness is tired to find
work in short hours of the day
in the long late ones of the night
we'll stay crisp in the trying times

underneath the lines that others
pronounce towards each other
we do not want to bander
instead we try to work together

On coure;
Read on;
My French peccadilloes brought me home
to New Orleans. A city without conscience.
Guilt avoids the gutters like the plague.
I live in them and hope to die in them.
Guilt lives in pews and AA folding chairs.
People afraid to die but terrified to live.
Jackie Mead Jan 2018
We're leaving memphis today
Thoroughly enjoyed our stay
Blues and Soul music on repeat
A walk up the famous Beale Street
Sun studios is a must of course, where legends got their first break
Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lewis and Elvis too
Gracelands you have to do!
Elvis's cars, golf buggies, bikes and planes
He loved his toys the collection is insane
From Memphis Tennessee by Amtrak cutting across the South, along the mississippi to Louisiana
Destination New Orleans
What will we see, what will we do?
Where will we go to eat at night?
Will there be Jazz bands in the streets, dancers and drummers at your feet.
What is that makes NOLA unique?
I started this on 9th when leaving memphis but only published today due to WiFi
james nordlund Apr 2020
The great Ellis Marsalis, Jr., died of corona virus in NOLA,
one of a thousand that passed away this Avril Fool's, from it,
all of whom will be missed dearly, "...we(e),..."'ll ever bay.

In his day, near his death, (W.A.) Mozart said to his wife,
"I fear I am writing a requiem for myself", as he composed
'Requiem Mass in D minor- Lacrimosa', of unparalleled beauty.

With rheumatic fever hitting Europe at that time, and soon
after, yellow fever in Philly, here, epidemics and pandemics
became common, the worst, 1918 Spanish Flu, 1/2 a bill dead.

listening to comedy ring hollow, a necessary alternative to
the news that isn't new, my ear longs for his veracious music.
How can USA have the worst response to it among technocracies?

Our king-kong sized terrible-two, ****, playing his keystone
President act for 3 months has determined the repub conspiracy's,
global oligarchy's agenda's yoke tighten around the people's neck.

The stealing of social security from the elderly, infirm, through
Covid-19 exterminating them more than others, this couldn't get
done politcally by the repubs for 2 decades.  As well, the poor

to lower-middle-class, especially people of color, can't afford
to defend themselves usually, now it's worse. "Stimulus bills"?,  
over 1/2 a trill to bail out small, big businesses, pay big Pharma,

medical supplies corps, who're already making hand over fist from
the bidding war between States, federal agencies, dictating Bush,
**** klans who're heavily invested, ever increasing kafknching.

Coastal regions, big cities, mostly dems, are murdered more by
virtue of #, close proximity, needs, ****'s re-election plan.
This while he kept his criminal cuts to SNAP, still stealing food

from mouths of babes and handing it to billionaires.  Same as
it ever was, class war, repubs using jobs they don't do, to mass-
exterminate non-repubs instead.  like the serial murderers who

masquerade as cops, killers ..., as doctors, judges as justices.
The 'big fix' is in, if it ain't fixed don't break it, stop all
criminal insanity, if not you then who, here, where, now, when?

This leaf of poetree, although it just a twig be, may be my last.
If so, I'm honored to pass with such great artists, yet, hopefully
not from skyrocketing price of living.  Social distance, wear mask.
"The sleepers must awaken" (before they're extincted by climate change), movie Dune.  Thanx for all you All do.  Have a great eve'   ;)   reality
Nola Leech Feb 2020
Denial and Isolation
All you want to be is alone
You were always
Lonely
So you started talking to yourself
Like you were two people
You were left alone for so long
Now you choose to be alone
Because all you want to do is sleep
But no one will let you
You can’t believe she would do this to you
You can’t understand
What she could have possibly been thinking
She choose him over you
You are her daughter
She held you close
Rocked and nursed you
You thought she cared about you
How could she?
Why?
Why wasn’t I good enough for her?
2. Anger
I hate her
I don’t miss her
I remember everything she’s ever done
Like the time she slammed my head into her headboard
I remember how she let him scream at me and drag me into his pickup against my will
When I begged and screamed I didn’t want to go
And she said, “Nola, You have too.”
Because I knew what would happen
And so did she
Every time I was screamed at in front of her
When I told her I was suicidal
And she said I’d get therapy
That she would help me
But she never did
3.  Bargaining
If I had told someone sooner
If only I had done something
Anything
Moved, spoke
Told my mom everything that happened the moment it happened
Maybe just maybe
She would have believed me
Over him
When I have done nothing wrong
And he is everything wrong with our life
But she just can’t seem to kick him out
4. Depression
There’s nothing you can do
So why try?
Why do anything?
When nothing goes your way
No one understands
Every day something new happens
And it seems like the world is pinned against you
Like no one will give you a break
5. Acceptance
There will come a day
When you no longer
Daydream of what you should’ve been
Nothing you could have ever done warrants this kind of torture
Qualyxian Quest Aug 2020
Coca Cola
Rock n' Rolla
      NOLA

— The End —