New Mexico – Borderless

Hurricane Laura’s Course

HURRICANE LAURA’S COURSE

Backwards flow the waters of the mighty Mississippi. Unchart the chart of known courses. Rewrite maps. History. Story. Correct course of usual tellings.

Ippississim: teach your children that spell.

Reclaim mark twain*: let it mean again and only two fathoms, twelve feet.

The raft is Jim’s.

Along the shores teach: Choctaw Chickasaw Quapaw Osage Caddo Natchez Tunica Sioux Sauk and Fox Ojibwe Pottawatomie Illini Menominee Ho-chunk.

Ditch de Soto: he discovered nothing.

Over your flow under the Danziger Bridge turn bullets. Return Hurricane Katrina gunfire truth.

Flow the waters over Minneapolis St. Paul. Overflow. Ten miles from the shores to Cup Foods. Revive George Floyd. Wash away the Chauvin gang.

New Mississippi River baptisms called for. Called forth. Forthcoming.

Along shores awaiting reversal trickster water invites.

Performance Poetry by Dee Allen

IMMENSE RIVER

On and off 
Erratic activity
Storm cloud convergence
Climate's hostility

This year's winter rain
Shown up full force
Descending upon us
Impaling pitchforks

Landslides, mudslides,
Service roads gone concave
Car sinks into gaping sinkhole
Stormwater comes in a wave

Flooded main streets
Arrive with merciless wind
Staccato rhythm of raindrops
The house roof might cave in

Leave town for higher ground
California's battered—disturbed climate's powers
Hot months—Cold months
Season of fires—Vicious showers

Outflow intense from the immense
River from the sky—
Continued use of coal and oil
Brought this on—some still deny.


LEAST LIKELY

Canyons have splendid broad-gauge views.
Beaches offered the same treasures, too,
As had forests where pine trees grew,
But see me in the desert? Not likely.

Sunny plains are pleasant—Not!
Treeless, unbearable, exceedingly hot.
Lack of lakes—what that terrain's got.
Will I visit the desert again? Not likely.

From longest road to highest bluff,
Every mile's similar—dry and rough.
Death Valley in Nevada—that was enough.
My chances of waltzing through desert again? Least likely.


BATDAWN

What makes this
New Mexico sunrise
So different
From others?

The bats
Are returning
En masse, animated
Cloud of leathery wings drift

To Carlsbad Caverns'
Caves from a long
Night's flight
Of freedom.

Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California USA, with 7 books and 67 anthology appearances, currently seeking a new publisher.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles