New Orleans

There is no way to capture the experience of New Orleans. There's too much - of everything. Too much color, life, music, magic . . . I couldn't find enough words, and I couldn't put them together just how I wanted. This is the best I could do:

The air hanging thick
with something
you recognize
but cannot explain,
Hot and wonderful
carried up nostrils
To a living brain
filled with colors
from art, bigger than life
colors never seen -
Together, beautiful
While too much music
blends into a perfect noise

Sun shining by day
on horns that gleam
and blind the eye
as dark lips press
and dark hands tap
to give you a rhythm
your body can't resist

Until a stillness falls
and that same horn
is cooled
and shines
with different lights
and makes a sound
that is better
for the night

While dark boys,
beautiful,peculiar to their home,
dance in ways -
only they know how,
with moves that were born
in their nimble legs,
and the sound they make
is addictive -
bottle caps on shoes
patting into pavement

Voodoo
good and bad
on faces
that scowl and smile

Dancing in a street
Thick with its own aroma
A place you can
never really know -
Can never really touch
Can never really leave

Sept. 2010