Algae in the Lagoon - A New Orleans Poem

[garthranzz]

Algae in the Lagoon

Perhaps the year betricks the eyes
with algae in the lagoon,
for Katrina cannot conflate so soon
detritus and desire;
the city’s soul
besmirchéd better than bestrewn
with algae in the lagoon.
The slime that smothered walls and stores
slips across the streets
and slithers out of tune.
Concordant chords of memory
consign the song to Basin and Canal,
where water wells with tears
displaced, driven as a leaf
within the winding winds of hurricanes.
Whistling willows wash over oaks where
cypress sags and seagulls scry
in brackish shards of green -
crystalled crimes - or is it climes? -
compare the river’s beat
with stagnant, stale, odiferous -
ah, would I were indifferent,
or at the least immune;
but if I look, then I must see
the writing of a rune
and all aswirl from yesterday
with algae in the lagoon.