Below Sea Level

"New Orleans is a beautiful part of our history. It is also below sea level, unfixable and permanently unsafe." - Will Lange, Tyler, Texas (Time Magazine, 8/27/2007)

Beautiful
Poverty,
children
food
crowd
overcrowded
sheets on windows
dilapidated buildings
no running water
valet service
"Let me hold open that door for you ma'am"
Shuffle, shuffle
Popeyes
quaint streets
slick blades
lights
alchohol
tricks
"In that water"
street performance
under that water
can't get out

History
Something we forgot about
Something we don't want to remember
elephants
crowded
in
rooms
stay ignored
too big
suffocating
we won't look at them
and their
show
Beautiful history

Black people making love
don't watch it

Below sea level
I already said drowning
meant it
made a way
within the still waters
God parted
and made a place for me
ancestors held back the walls
made a place for me
Jordan, the Sea of Reeds
Made a place for me
something fantastic
made a place for me

Unfixable
Shouldn't have been fixed like that anyway
but since it was...
I'll live there
make the fixed out of the unfixable
everyday
that's what I do
make my name from
can I borrow a dollar?
Can I give you these three quarters for a dollar?
Fix me
Fix me please
Fix me
Fix me
Fix me

Permanently unsafe
I didn't know that
I'm unsafe
Permanently
I didn't know that
How did you?
I thought I fixed the unfixable
I thought
that was my namesake
that's what I do
Didn't I do that
that ain't enough
Well now
what do I do
I am not to be feared
but if you are going to

go head

I'll take that too