Superdome Blues, Los Angeles Style

Superdome Blues, Los Angeles Style 9/2/05

Something is different now
Something is indeed different mired in frustration and complexity now
It hard to shake
Hard to put to rest

I am so blessed to have so much
But I can’t rationalize it...I have to think about it, deal with it, it is my life these days
Thinking each day about the babies, mothers, elders left to die
Fend for themselves
Wait on help and suffer
It’s Darwinian I swear it
It’s as if those who couldn’t leave deserved their fate
It’s as if being poor and old and young and black and female and female means you deserve such trauma

And I just can’t shake it
I feel like I’m in a long distance stooper
Where I have sun and peace and food and security, but this can’t really be real
I can’t really deserve to sleep easy when so many tonight can’t sleep at all

I swear to you.
My house is a bit unkept
And my mind a jostle
And my spirit just feels trapped in all of this.
Am I to go or stay or write or cry or fly somewhere to tend to the sick or dying.

I just feel changed
and weary
and undeserving
and lonely
and confused
and like my worst fears about America have been realized and confirmed
Those stranded in New Orleans have lives that aren’t worth saving for our government.
And I know that my life looks just the same to them.