If you were to leave me
By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney
You remind me of a sunrise," I said on the day my eyes fell on your face.
And your name becomes my mouth,
Feeling like chilled mimosa on parched lips
While Katrina winds carried on all around me.
That I be in the right place, you to me & I to you & you to thee…
I am as here as I could be gift wrapped by your words…
Like beignets & café au lait & the moonlight at 2 am.
Or champangne & grite if you please..
And a dressing gown of your voice and draped in melodic sounds of you despite it all.
If you were to go away right now it would be like the air stopped at half past not anything
If you were to leave me now I would be like Shakespeare’s
To be or not to be that is the question whirling in a drunken hurricane drink on Bourbon Street
If your were to leave me now all I would have is
A melody of silenced stringed notes…,
A cosmic symphony of no mores
That would have an audience of one
When the levees broke
Though you may never know of how I deeply you are in the marrow of my soul…
I give your promise to me
And I to you that I would never forget you nor will I allow anyone else to
Though your name may appear to some
To be quieted by time it seems
New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, Port Arthur, Lower Nine, Iowas, Illinois,Wisconsin and all the others
When the levees broke…
This is what I remembered of home today
Adaptation of original poem “If you were to leave me” for Katrina ProjectJHM 6-18-08©
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