A Louisiana Coronation

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.