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Four Poems: Katrina’s Pathway

Harvest of Apoplectic Horses
((Dedicated to: Katrina)) crisis)

It has happened before:
Nearby and afar,
Where the four-horses of
Apocalypse
With their flaming nostrils
Breathed in the fury of the winds
Only to vomit out, disaster;
Then galloped away,
Against pale faces!…

#824 9/2/05

The Vanishing
[Dedicated to: Katrina]

For a time, I left my body
Behind me.
Still,
I resided in my darkroom
“There is good in the world,” I said,
The spirit of the world begins
To moveslowly, after Katrina.
I closed my eyes, thinking
New Orleans, Mississippi
(a prayer, if only for one).
Women’s hands, loaves of bread…
Appear…eyes of men tired with dread
Burgundy faces, huddled
Together…appear.
I say: thank God it’s not winter.
The world is silent (mostly)
A few friends hear our cry
But they are just shadows
Turned away from the sun.
The only thing worse than death,
Is thisthe vanishing.

#825 9/2/05

Bones in Water
(The Gem of the South; Katrina)

There once was this gem
Down along the Mississippi
(The Big Easy, New Orleans)
A gem, all wanted to touch:
Now in silent waters, like Atlantis;
The city in the dark:
Once the blossom of the South,
It cannot stand up right now.
Broken to its knees, with ease
In the winds of the hurricane:
Katrina’s pathway: bones and ravage.

#826 9/2/06

Doomed to Live
[Katrina]

Doomed to live
Are those who survived?
Katrina’s massive outcry
The defiance of Mother Nature
Against mankind.
Thus, her ultimatum, her
Remorseless, implacable
Unalterable despair
Gave her skeleton to create
A great catastrophe
For humankind…
Her face was gaunt, with
Patched gray, colored dead
With tarnished braids around
Her eyelidsunaimed, calm
Her voice, not even rose
She destroyed New Orleans
Her golden rival!…

#827 9/3/05

Dennis Siluk, international Poet