MY KATRINA COLLECTION

  i memoirs

  Yellowed. Blades of grass bent

  beneath the sole, against the river mud

  of colors matching coal: fragments

  of the past. Now. Scattered salt

  on the floor. These eyes are

  beady pepper-grains, searching—

  more and more.

                      ii clouds

                      off rooftops

                      mother says

                      stretch

                      to steal a bite

                      of gray...

  iii sirens

  Lean your head against my ear

  and you're to hear the gathered

  crowds at Convention drive: Pulitzer

  gold upon their eyes; bacteria

  bites back their bloodied nails: we'll peel

  your face and hope to find marrowbones.

  Pink.

  Pale.

      iv faces

      if you would,

      find my gray face

      that i left beneath

      the mississippi mud

      digging

      with broken nails

      (& my red face

      padded with the alabama

      clay) deeper,

      somewhere;

      & my brown face,

      combing the surface

      of the rising waters:

      blue-black and glazed

      with the humid,

      the august sun.

  (Originally posted February 12, 2008)

  To contact Ricky Laurentiis send an email to: rmcghee@gm.slc.edu  

  or visit: www.myspace.com/rickeylaurentiis