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Allysa

Senior Member

since 1999-11-09

Posts 1952
In an upside-down garden

0 posted 2006-04-09 12:08 PM

We got yelled at when we tried to wake
his younger brother, sleeping in the hotel
room, where his mom asked for a window
so we could at least have a view of something,
preferably the city, though, we got a courtyard
full of metal rods and building blocks.

We were going for a drive,
across a river, maybe?
I think we crossed a bridge
or maybe it was an overpass
I'm not quite sure now

And this is the part I haven't told
anyone, not even my family, or those
who asked me why I didn't take pictures
for some reason they were mad because
I took pictures at the Audubon Zoo
I took pictures on the streets of the Quarter

But I couldn't take pictures there .

And if you actually saw it, you would
understand my discretion, I was paralyzed
by the idea that someone would have to come
home to see their houses like that, with the
watermarks up to where my shoulders would be

Most of the buildings, on this side of town
were decorated with signs displaying messages
warning that looters would be shot, that
trespassers would be shot, it was a shoot now
ask questions later kind of situation with
broken windows and boarded up doors

There was a boat in the middle of the road.

And some people might find that interesting
some people might feel the urge to snap
pictures of random houses falling into bodies
of water and streetlights bent at a ninety
degree angle of impossiblity, but, well

You see, these are not models of cities
where people do not matter and everything is
something created inside of a fanatasy land-
these are real people, and those are their homes
and you cannot understand the impossibility
of this by viewing it through a camera lens

You have to see it for yourself, or not at all.

And I am not one of those people, and I am sorry
to disappoint, but when you ask me to see
the pictures that I took, you will see elephants,
small children climbing a very large tree, and
Jackson Square, which, apparently is uninteresting
because it's not what they wanted to experience.

serenity blaze
Member Empyrean

since 2000-02-02

Posts 27738

1 posted 2006-04-09 04:30 PM

I tried as well, Alyssa.

But to me, it was like taking a picture of a corpse in a casket.

I know some people do those things--but exhale--I think a little differently about that sort of thing.

I didn't take pictures of her ugly, because my love was not "there". Besides, I was getting ill.

*hugs*

With every write, I find another layer of you that is N'awlins and I have some hope--that maybe, just maybe, if there are enough of us--she isn't dead afterall.

'cause you see? New Orleans was never about the quaint, the quirks, the moldy brick or even the landmarks--she is always been, and will always remain pulsed by the blood of the people who love her. thank you

yet again.

Juju
Member Elite

since 2003-12-29

Posts 3429
In your dreams

2 posted 2006-04-09 04:59 PM

very true, I think it is the same reason the media is not allowed to release names of victoms of murder until the family says it is ok/ knows (one oif the two). Maybe also that fine for tailing emergrncy vehicles. gawking is not polite.

good write

-<>-~-<>-~-<>-
* Juju *
-<>-~-<>-~-<>-

Allysa

Senior Member

since 1999-11-09

Posts 1952
In an upside-down garden

3 posted 2006-04-10 10:42 AM

Thanks guys.

My family is mainly German, but someone married a Polish person, and it is a Polish tradition, apparently, to take pictures of dead people. Which I think is ridiculous. And this Polish family member person tried to take pictures at my grandfather's wake, until someone stopped him.

I just remembered that, when you mentioned that ritual, Serenity.

Musicmaker1969

Senior Member

since 2000-06-25

Posts 589
Peterborough, Ontario Canada

4 posted 2006-05-23 03:07 AM

It must have been a terrible sight to behold. I cannot imagine water in our streets up to my shoulders. God forbid it should ever happen anywhere again. Well written and emotionally moving poem.

Bless you,
Sheri Adams

Jesus lives in my heart! He can in yours too!!!
Sheri Liegh Adams
sheriliegh@sympatico.ca

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