 |
| Person who died at the dome and convention center, covered, and left to rot with the living by governments, city, state, federal, scandalously unpre- pared for an event they knew would some day come. In the ten years since corruption and racial bias spent the money provided in improvements to commercial and overwhelmingly white areas which did not suffer as much. The 100,000 black occupants were flung to adjacent states, given no help to return or rebuild |
Ten years ago the world watched
Humankind signaling desperately
From the roofs of their houses
Flood waters having pushed them
Into attics hands tore at weak spots
Until they’d made a hole
Large enough to crawl out
Everything below a complete loss
Possibly a family member missing
How they stayed for days without food
Water everywhere filled with feces
They waited for boats helicopters
To lift them away the clothes
On their back likely soiled
Badge of victim status
Dependent for everything on
Strangers yet by comparison
With those sequestered in the
Superdome convention center
The evacuated truly were blessed
Extracted from wreckage given
Dry clothing meals access
To a toilet stripped of every good
At least retained some dignity
As the dome’s convention center
Shelter space quickly festered
Open sore of mislaid people
Given nothing but empty promises
Hungry thirsty crying babies
Children to whom parents could not
Explain why after a horrific week
Of torment in darkness then marched
Into buses by helmeted armed abusive
Soldiers as if by existing they
Had done something wrong
Now to be punished taken to unfamiliar
Far away cities dropped like hot bricks
Told to manage without funds without meds
Penniless recordless refugees thrust
Without planning onto unprepared
Foreign charities soon overloaded
They couldn’t know if they still had jobs
Any claims for their losses
Their government saviors underfunded
Run by a dunce rewarded for gathering
Campaign money for the dunce-in-chief
Botched almost all they attempted
The dominant local racial hatred
That for years sought to be rid of them
Seized every opportunity to block
Their path red-tape every relief
Dehumanized them before the nation
Who for a week watched in horror
Then overcome by Katrina fatigue
Forgot them moved on
To who knows what
But it doesn’t end there
What unfolds is unbelievable
Deceit corruption vanity theft of the help
First ordained for the suffering
But given only to those who remained
Wretched thousands thrown to the diaspora
Were cheated of any possible help
New Orleans hoped they'd just
Stay out of sight
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
For those who need reminding read the article linked:
No comments:
Post a Comment