So do our walls,
The wetlands die,
Amidst the calls,
For environmental reforms,
For stricter relations,
Anything to save us,
From the conquering worms,
This gulf. This river. This sea.
Rising up around us, until our precious boot,
Ceases to be.
Only by boat,
Can you reach us any longer,
Our earthen moat,
These levees built stronger.
As the waters rose, the Government left.
First the Federal, than the state,
Not wasting a breath,
On our dying land– our filling swamp.
Our fragile economy,
Crushed in a swift stomp,
Our abandonment of nature,
Her abandonment of us,
Sealing our own doom,
Misplacing out trust,
In Louisiana’s resources,
A government spread thin,
Finally reaping the recourses,
Of our arrogance and sin.
As the waters rise,
And the government fails.
New Orleans returns,
Under her original sails.
No longer with false flags weighing on her back,
Those of her temporary masters,
France, The U.S., Louisiana fall through the cracks.
Shaken off like loose plaster.
A pirate city, as she was birthed,
New Orleans, the fish-bowl island,
Still shouts, “I AM!” upon the Earth.
Nolan’s poetry is available at Blue Cypress Books on Oak Street and Faulkner House Books in the French Quarter. You can also buy his books here!
