Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sunday in the Quarter



The bacchanals of the night before
consigned to memory, someone else’s,
and it is sufficient to walk the streets
from Canal to Esplanade,
from Rampart to Decatur,
imagining, as I do, if I might meet
Faulkner as he leaves his apartment
on Pirate’s Alley, or Dreiser emerging
from a nearby alleyway, or Tennessee
with eyes older than his years walking
to his place on Dumaine. Perhaps
I should let some grizzled artist pay me
ten dollars to draw my picture, or sit
with the lady at the card table
with her Tarot cards as people stream
from the 11 a.m. mass at the cathedral.
Instead, it is sufficient to walk the streets
from Decatur to Rampart,
from Esplanade to Canal,
and catch the streetcar for home.

Photograph taken by Janet Young, October 2010.

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