In the city 

where a protest sparked a revolution,

sometimes things have to get

a lot worse.

Echo her sentiment:

they would rather fall off the cliff,

dismiss, trigger and overlook

the challenge designed.

The continuing dumbing down

of our own people,

It’s a concern that does not seem to resonate.

So hat’s off to those who rejected their own plan.

Let’s see what’s on the other side, for

the other side continues to prove elusive,

the most onerous time stopped short.

But we have to endure the pain,

wonder,

survive, 

and unite.

- Jorton Nuster

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/12/conservatives_say_no_to_tax-in_1.html#incart_river_default

Lionel Batiste reveled early Sunday.
He was larger,
with his wristwatch and his sunglasses
and his black tie.

Mr. Batiste,
how to act, how to dress?

When Batiste was young,
he paraded on bass drum,
shoeshine tap dancer, pork bandleader,
dirty kazoo all over town.

He occasionally sang so soft
he became away, floated away.

Second installment:
Mr. Batiste towered his heart
along Frenchman Street.
Night surrounded Batiste in his wheelchair.

The band called out,
“Whatcha wanna hear, Uncle Lionel?”
The request:
gimme every single place for the last time.

       - slurmontov

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2012/07/uncle_lionel_batiste_treme_bra.html

Let’s make an exception for the devil.

A knack for reaching folks, the devil 
plunges you into the stew of passions,

animates you in elaborations that weave
refuge and war, human and cold, 

happiest when talking through story, 
shy encounters with rain.

On the other hand, it’s almost always a bad idea: 
novel failures, the suffering of friends.  
After such knowledge, what forgiveness 
for even a quiet domestic scene?

Mortality
the devil describes
as emblematic possibility,
a set of questions by huge blunders.

The disasters of possibility,
disaster the context for everything.

   - slurmontov

 http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2011/08/treme_screenwriter_tom_piazza.html

the flak he gets
razzed for it
razzed by the guys
they catch me;
what the hell.

foolhardy
there is such a thing as hanging a target
on your back.

i have to hide
or i will get harassed,
a no man’s land.
where i live,
it’s socially dangerous
like farting in church.

apoplectic
a rageful joy,
thinly disguised attacks
handled magnificently with grace and leadership and intellect.

finally.
that’s the way it should have been.

- B. L. Ride

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/07/barack_obama_re-election_contr.html 

Cindy: 

the center of longitude

moving toward this general motion

expected for days.

Cindy will remain,

far from sustained;

slow strengthening

followed by weakening,

colder,

less favorable,

miles from the center.

— B.L. Ride

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2011/07/tropical_storm_cindy_forms_in.html 

I’m guessing no one knows joy here:

The granite, the flashes, the breakfast and crack.

The elimination of a new kind of America.

With a slight Southern accent,

We do another pretty guy up.

-split foster

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/07/buddy_roemer_says_other_gop_pr.html

Entropy becoming a park

after the soil

flowered back and forth.

Route steadily

quietly

returning to root.

As small as he said,

more,

combination of the two

translating.  

The perception of a handful is a principle of matter

akin to concrete plant. 

Why something not anything? And if there was any, it migrated. 


- slurmontov

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/07/brownfields_money_considered_f.html

John, whose white frame is a mecca, died at Harahan. 

   - slurmontov

http://www.nola.com/dining/index.ssf/2011/07/john_moscas_owner_of_the_landm.html   

Ecstatic and rapturous—
She haunted nature.
She excoriated a baby. 
She cruised the audience.
She heaved herself
into the dance club.
It’s OK.

- Mme. Lafitte

http://www.nola.com/essencefest/index.ssf/2011/07/mary_j_blige_capped_off_2011_e.html

I see Zeitgeist
from Britain with love, society kicks the consul general of France. 

L’Amour Fou and a surrealist biography masterpiece—a touring
program emerging as an ambitious initiative.
the freshest pond for students and seniors.

Details are available.

- treme bebe

http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2011/06/upcoming_film_festivals_to_whi.html 

A missing shoe and curious bruising,

Riding northbound, returning home.

Matey, missing a shoe.

Juarez, bruising.

Matey, seated and heavy.

Juarez, driving.

- Mme. Lafitte

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2011/06/state_police_missing_shoe_brui.html#incart_mce

Early June, a rare day. 
Llamas, ducks,
chickens and dogs, all the animals
Wilson likes seeing.

The catastrophe of it all.
Destitute and homeless, I reflect,
sometimes, tears of joy.
My father said,
Son, your blessings tangled. 
But without that past
what would be
the person I am now?

All through the church they struck yearning.
The well ran to bedeviled streets, 
haggard clothes walking around all night.  

I had a story. It was a nice one. 
Two people waking up resurrected.

Charlie-last-name-Wilson,
straight penny in the summer,
he stepped out brightly colored.
I believe I’m a living witness, 
I receive mundane matters, 
tooth pulled to savor
the enormous distance.

- slurmontov

http://www.nola.com/essencefest/index.ssf/2011/06/charlie_wilson_overcame_many_s.html 

I already see a major difference in him. 
He can make it through an event.
He’s dancing and cheering to music.

I love all of this.

Babies are cute,
But they don’t say or do anything.
Toddlers talk and enjoy mundane things.

Unfortunately, too young to react.

Children have to be fun.
Families are war games, morning reveille.
Spaces must be reserved in advance.

Your child is too young.

I strongly suggest food.
The experience is required.
Space is limited.

- Mme. Lafitte

http://www.nola.com/family/index.ssf./2011/06/national_wwii_museum_offers_ov.html 

The moon is nearly mechanical 

The planet is terribly drawn

I genuinely love Leonard.

and the far, running dark

-maj. horace scales

http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2011/06/transformers_dark_of_the_moon.html

Wild morning coffee through the picture window

Conical ears atop a ball of wet fur

Whoa usual suspects

No collar

Vulpine

Small male exhausted residents

A golf course

Interlopers

Mangled neighborhood prowl

Small opportunists

nuisance

Outlaw

Likely can

From Coyote Scares are Pretty Much Here to Stay, RIchard Rainey