Bayou Blues

Dead crocodiles floatin’ in the bayou

No pelicans on the broken boat’s mast

This freshwater swamp is disappearing

How long will the Native people here last?

I’ve got the hungry heron Bayou blues.

Rita ravaged the raised Chitimaucha homes

Shrimp boats still lying belly up on roads

Big oil machinery is widening the bayous

And saltwater is rising as the land erodes

That’s why, I’ve got the sagging sunflower Bayou blues.

Dead cypress trees hug broken levees

No crawfish spirits left to hold up the land

Too many assessments and no FEMA trailers

Why won’t the Red Cross come give another hand?

Oh, I’ve got the coral snake biting Bayou blues.

Somedays, I see the Native chiefs organizin’ in ninety directions

And the foreign volunteers and engineers arrive

I hear the possums whisperin’ by the backyard kumquats

And I pray, real loud, May we all survive

this post-hurricane jive.