Eternal Flames and Spectral Colors

Eternal Flames and Spectral Colors
How very sad: New Orleans is under water. Unable to flee before the arrival of a devastating hurricane, hundreds of people in the region, most of them poor, have died, and it is inevitable that many more, perhaps thousands, will be found dead in the days and weeks to come. Thousands are already without a home. It is foolish, I know, but during the course of the past few days, I have been thinking about Louis Armstrong. I wish he were alive, for who could better express the new wave of sorrow that has befallen that strangely painted southern town, haunted by the slave trade and the Mississippi River, and lit with eternal flames and spectral colors? During the Second World War, when my father was in the army, he met a young man from New Orleans. This young man pronounced the city�s name Norns, which I suppose should really be written N�Orns. It means nothing, of course. And yet, from now on, it will be impossible to hear any version of that name without remembering what happened there. In 1906, San Francisco crumbled and burned. We know the city it is today. What will become of the historic maze called New Orleans, neck deep in toxic waters under blazing, humid skies? What will become of the people in nearby Mississippi, who are stunned by this blow? Where will they live? What will they do? How long will they be remembered by the government? This country needs New Orleans. Try to imagine it without. New Orleans is like the nation�s Halloween mask. It is an alluring fabric woven with sweet, forgiven sin. The people who live in New York might not know it, think about it, or care to admit it, but New York would not be New York without New Orleans. And this country would not be worth its weight in sorrow without the beautiful poor people of the South, West, East, and North who every day invent new ways to drag their burdens forward. *September 1, 2005* Previous Entry Next Entry Return to Songs and Letters About the Author	Also by William Michaelian POETRY Winter Poems ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4 52 pages. Paper. �� Another Song I Know ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1 80 pages. Paper. �� Cosmopsis Books San Francisco Signed copies available Main Page Author�s Note Background Notebook A Listening Thing Among the Living No Time to Cut My Hair One Hand Clapping Songs and Letters Collected Poems Early Short Stories Armenian Translations Cosmopsis Print Editions Interviews News and Reviews Highly Recommended Let�s Eat Favorite Books & Authors Useless Information Conversation E-mail & Parting Thoughts Flippantly Answered Questions
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