MISSISSIPPI SEDUCTION

 

I was first in New Orleans                                

For Mardi Gras madness                                   

Before I had knowledge                                   

Of what madness was.                                              

 

The city was jumping                                      

And throbbing with bodies                                

I had trouble breathing                                    

With all of the closeness.                                 

                                                                  

I sliced through the garble                               

Of Bourbon Street thickness                             

I held onto friends--                                       

A drunk caterpillar.                                         

                                                                  

The air was a vapor                                        

Of liquor and heat                                          

Beads flew up above me                                   

Beer spilled in my hair.                                     

                                                                  

And then something happened                          

Behind all the clamor                                       

Though few even knew it                               

Somebody was dying.                                     

                                                                  

The mounted policemen                                   

All shouted like soldiers                                    

They seemed like a vision                                

And somebody died. 

 

Like that it was over

Wrapped up in a headache

I awoke on a floor

And tried to remember.

 

Now I've lived quite a circle

Back here to New Orleans

And I'm pondering steamboats

Inside Ocean Song.

 

I look past the steel

That shines like a mirror

The sky's like a sapphire

I've not seen before.

 

The city is sleeping

Down here by the water

I think I hear breathing

Through June's humid silence.

 

The river is coursing

A Mississippi seduction

And silt from my nightmare

Dissolves like a dream.