where are you now, my handsome lizard?

new orleans crept bodylice our thighs and
invaded our squathouse nests;
a humid coldlove.

we sneezed like crackdust in every corner,
bought and sold ourselves on royal and frenchman,
on charters,
on decatur,
but never bourban.

have you tuned up those stringy hairs,
are you in jesus modal?

we caught a pair of rats in love,
rolling through the beehive.

and i thought your fidora,
in a july harvest
now looked like a pushy rooster.

we fed feral chickens,
in a ninth ward yardsore.
handfulls of corn and seed they wouldn’t eat,
too busy with feathertear,
too busy with gravel,
too busy with rock salt.

where are you now my handsome lizard,
my check point charlie?

where are you now my foolsgold tinkerbox?
my abandoned floodzone?
my broken levee?