42. A Blue Wake For New Orleans (Villanelle)

by Lorna Dee Cervantes - Boulder, Colorado

~ dirge villanelle in september

There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo
'Til a wicked wind laid waste
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do

There was a windy will and a blue horn - you
A single name that was left in haste
There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo

There is a wailing city, a water high - and you
Left amid the residues up to your waist
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do

There was a loving city in a blue hoodoo
Through a hard-knocks school, a river's waste
There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo

A full moon hue, a relation to dew
Jeweling on a spider's bed - so chaste
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do

There is a silent city, a blue shirt crew
The yellow vest of savior waits
There was a rhyming city on a blue bayoo
A nothing sound in a city's soul, and a nothing you can do


hellicane category: local color