A Louisiana Coronation

 

Today the French lau­re­ate
takes his place
among the swamp people.

And the ice
the ice of win­ter
remains upon our rooftops
and upon our fin­gers
here, here still
even above the tropics.

A child sleeps
even in Amer­i­ca,
dream­ing of the lily,
that flower lily
through which he will be trans­port­ed
trans­port­ed forever

from the humid­i­ty
from mud and shrimp
from hur­ri­canes and the course
of destruc­tion of pover­ty
to a for­eign coun­try
to a feast of kings
and poets.
 

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