Lillie - As the streetcar persistently creaks...

As the streetcar persistently creaks

                                air twists

                wrrrming by

                                exposing faces through the latched windows.

As the branches hit hit    hit   

                                leaves bend,

                                and veins are crushed for clearing ways.

Benches flow from two to four

                with the passengers

                                leaving and going and leaving and going

                like the tide of A 28-Foot Storm Surge Projected For The New Orleans Area: Evacuation Mandatory.

Picture the streetcar (1835) struggling through chunky fluid

                full of tears and trash and home and bodies and childhood and and and

   the streetcar steadily creaks to a stop.

                The wake sloshing against sides,

                                  receding memories

                                                down

                                                                 the

                                                                           streets

                                                                                         and                

                                                                                                over 
                                                                                               levees.

Lillie, age 16