Conceived of water
I am, of this city a miracle itself
Born prematurely. Its soil an embryo
While stood new and strong on the West Bank:
The Great Sphinx
Over an Ancient Nile.
Born into water
I am, baptized a Piscean child
That night, a city's storm, bone cold and stone damp
One storm among eternal storms; the roads float
Flooding the streets to Mercy,
I arrive.
Raised up by water
I am, taught in its waves.
Each day: how to live in the city on the deltaic edge
Each hour: how to thrive in the city on the continental shelf.
Listen:
Lake Pontchartrain, alluvial and buoyant, gives me gills to breathe.
The Mississippi curves around my body, brown and rooted, speaking of love.
Rocked over and over in the warm, green lap of the Gulf of Mexico: te amo.
Sung to sleep: French lullabies hum inside the mist over Bayou St. John:
je t’aime.
Buried by water.
My dreams sink away from this accidental city.
My body an accident itself
A city itself a miracle, I am.
My memorial waters.
