We All Rebuild
Lust in lieu of loyalty,
Chase in lieu of commitment,
Lies in lieu of vows.
He attracted his prey with an intricate silk web2
Elaborately woven with cunning charm
And artificial compassion.
He wore his Façade proudly.
Pretentious.
She never knew.
She was caring and sincere,
Unwavering and reliable.
Her loyalty, intrinsic.
Her word was worth its weight in gold.
Her love, a rare diamond
In a world littered with cubic zirconia.
She abandoned her Kevlar,
Embracing him with open arms.
She wore her smile proudly.
Naïve.
She never knew.
He promised her love more tangible than flowers;
An abysmal love more expansive than an ocean.
But the lies c
a
s
c
a
d
e
d
from his lips.
She never knew.
The tides were surging1, as the city slept.
There was no sunrise that day in late August.3
Looming darkness,
A foreshadowing of things to come.
Those of us, who stayed behind
Saw Katrina storm the beach.
Normandy.4
The waves pummeled the Gulf coast;1
Sinking their teeth into the shore,
Ravaging it like hyenas would a fresh carcass.
The torrential rain1 came from every direction.
Katrina had arrived.
The Big Easy never knew.
The winds unleashing in an apocalyptic rage,
Plucking trees right from the Earth.
Disoriented. Abandoned. Alone.
The flooding began,
The water kept rising
Higher
Higher
Higher
He laid his lies on the table, full house.
Her levee’d1 lids filled with tears of:
Hate
Affection
Love
Deception
The levies1 couldn’t contain the weight.
Breached.5
Tears came crashing to the earth around her.
She never knew.
Gale force winds fought furiously to rip him from that chair,
To cleanse her shattered soul.
Katrina knew the destruction he laid upon her.
His empty words a web of lies.
The “totem”6 spun faster,
As Katrina’s tears flowed ferociously from her core.
She submerged the 9th Ward5—“Streets became rivers.” 7
Her cyclone1 ripping the city to pieces,
Her fury reaching a Category Five.1
Katrina mirrored her desolation.
She was perpetually frozen in time,
In a chaotic dance.
An orchestrated wrath of god,
Catastrophe surrounded her
Engulfing
Consuming
Drowning
A ravaged house, no longer hers.
One soul dead, hopeless and alone,
A red cross on the door of what once was her home.8
Long hours lead to long days.
A city leveled
Resembling ruins.
The violent winds slowed to a gentle breeze,
As the clouds parted
Exposing the sun.
The light embraced her,
Warming her from within.
She knew it was time to start over.
Brick by brick, we all rebuild,
Slowly pumping the blood back into the veins of the city.
[1] Christopherson, Robert W. "8/Weather." Geosystems: an Introduction to Physical Geography. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. 211-18. Print.
Usage within text: This passage was mainly used for terminology within the meteorological community. The eye refers to the eye of the storm while also paying tribute to the man in this poem. Surging, torrential rain, levies and cyclone are all basic terms used with hurricanes. Focus Study 8.1 discusses many hurricanes that have formed along the Gulf Coast. Table 8.3 Gives the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Damage Potential Scale, which shows Hurricane Katrina at a Category 4 but in parentheses says it was a Category 5 at one point.
2 Vollrath, Fritz (2007). "The Role of Behavior in the Evolution of Spiders, Silks, and Webs". Annual review of ecology, evolution, and systematics (1543-592X), p. 819.
Usage within text: I used the concept as a web originally as a visual element but after reading this source I found an important correlation, “the web provides a rare example where a behavior pattern can be used analytically to provide quantitative character traits,” I saw a direct correlation with the web and the character traits of the spider. Therefore, my example of the composition of the web (Cunning charm and artificial compassion) would describe the traits of the man in this poem.
3 Nossiter, Adam. "Katrina Slams into Coast." The Advertiser/Sunday Mail [Adelaide] 30 Aug. 2005, Foreign sec.: 29. Print.
Usage within text: I used this article to find the date and the time of day that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
4 Mohler, Albert R. "A Thin Wet Line of Khaki: D-Day 60 Years Later." The Boyce Digital Library. 07 June 2004. Web. 17 Sept. 2011. <http://digital.library.sbts.edu/handle/10392/2366>.
Usage within text: I used the term, "storm the beach" because it provides a good visual of Katrina like an attacking force. After thinking about other connections I saw that we stormed Normandy, France and that New Orleans is known for their French heritage; this drew a further correlation for me to put it in.
5 "Hurricane Katrina: a Calamity Compounded by Poverty and Neglect." Hurricane Katrina: Social Consequences & Political Lessons: Statements from the World Socialist Web Site. Trans. Joseph Kay. [S.l.]: World Socialist Web Site, 2005. 5-7. Print.
Usage within text: I used this source for the term breach to describe the water flooding over the levies. I also used this term to introduce the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. This is an extremely poor area and during Katrina they got some of the worst flooding. A lot of people there could not leave the city because they didn’t have cars; many people were left behind and stranded.
6 Inception. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Warner Bros, 2010. DVD.
Usage within text: I used the concept, from the movie, of a “totem.” In the movie it symbolizes figuring out if you are in a dream or reality. I liked the concept when attached to Hurricane Katrina and the relationship aspect. It implies a feeling of confusion. In the movie the main character’s totem is a spinning device, which correlates to the movement of a hurricane.
7 Christie, Michael. "HURRICANE KATRINA: WE ARE SINKING; THOUSANDS LEFT HOMELESS AS NEW ORLEANS IS SUBMERGED." Daily Record & Sunday Mail [Edinburgh] 30 Aug. 2005: 6-7. Print.
Usage within text: I used a direct quote from this article because it described the scene perfectly. It painted a picture for the reader that was an accurate description of what it was like in New Orleans at the time of the hurricane.
8 Wesson, Greg. "Spray Painted Crosses: Katrina and New Orleans’ Rebuild." Greg Wesson's Esoteric Globe. 10 July 2008. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. <http://gregwtravels.travellerspoint.com/195/>.
Usage within text: I wanted to use this article because the author talks about how after Hurricane Katrina they would put up a red cross on the doorways of houses. These crosses would show the date and name of the relief group searching the building, it would show if they were able to enter and how many bodies they found dead or alive.
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