Thursday, February 15, 2007

Still thinking of New Orleans (HBH 16)

I haven't heard from my pal John how his Krewe du Vieux carnival parade went the other week; but I'm sure it was a blast.

I recall that I was feeling particularly wistful about missing the party last year. Well, I was particularly wistful about everything this time last year, having just gone through a soul-shredding breakup with one of the Great Loves Of My Life.... but I had decided to pass on K d V because, so soon after Hurricane Katrina, I feared I'd feel a little out of place as an outsider, as if I were intruding on a private, still raw grief. Last year, I felt, it would be polite to leave the Carnival celebrations to local residents, as a necessary catharsis of the trauma they'd been through.

That was why I was all the more determined to try to make it out there this year.... but events conspired against me once again.

Anyway, this time last year, I composed this haiku - relevant again the other week.


N'Awlins parade night:
There in spirit, body trapped on
Far side of the world.

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