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Excerpt:

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TUESDAY

 

             Relentless heat

bears down

            our commute across town

                          past Charles Street 

            where dump trucks drive in empty each morning 

                          then drive out full 

                                       past chain link fences around brick schools

                          a sign that boasts Katrina won’t keep us away

 

Trash bins on every block

            porta potties on most every block

                         except our worksite has no plumbing 

            so we take turns at a FEMA trailer across the street—Tony’s sister 

                         Jocelyn from Gentilly.  She doesn’t seem to mind 

                                       welcomes the friendly chatter 

 

           Maneuvering through to the back, every square inch of her 5 foot-FEMA space crammed—tv, clothes, stereo by the oven 

           then you squeeze through a 2 foot-wide door—a feather’s gap between it 

                                       and the toilet

                        no graceful way to it   

                        and when you do sit

                                      like a clap on the back

                                      the seat cover promptly falls forward 

                                      this is annoying