buried in beauty crawling
like ivy caressing an old cemetery
where memories marry ashes
of prayers and promises scattered
by the breath of Betsy and Andrew
Audrey and Isaac and that truculent one
Katrina blowing down the bayou
a magnolia tempest soaked in fish
and creosote and strong coffee thick as mud
emanating from shotgun-shanty-shack shelters
hiding secrets behind the mossy veil
of sweet honeysuckle dreams
baptized in the blood of Atchafalaya
beneath the canopy of Evangeline
in the sanctuary of Tupelo
bearing mournful witness
on those sticky nights that never know silence
the solivagant begs for alms
between soiled cypress knees exposed
while the sun sizzles below dark water
From "Remants of Being," published by PEN/America
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