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“The Big Guy,” a photo by Colin Poellot/CC BY-SA 2.0
St. Anthony’s Garden, New Orleans
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What else?
In the late late light of the Delta
I look up to see the tugs glide by
above the levy
flying high above the Quarter
as if to shrug and say
What else you gonna do?
Which is how we do
when winds and waters
and virus and vice
sweep our city streets dirty
we play a horn and dance
we sing a song and pray
we have a big hope and we say
What else you gonna do?
I know a man who goes every day
to the corner of the block
and he buys his tickets
and then he sits down
on the curb and scratches
and sings and taps his feet
and then throws them
in the gutter but someday
they will sing back so he say
What else you gonna do?
Some say it’s boiled up
from the muddy water
those sounds we make
made for the whole world
to dance and moan
some say it’s mixed up together
with cognac in the deep wet well of the soul
stirred and stirred together with
pain and magic and blue and black
but I say the Lord set us down here
to sing a song and clap, so
What else you gonna do?
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___
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Bob.Walters.grew up in the bayou country of East Texas. After graduating from West Virginia University, he has spent the last few decades teaching Literature, Writing, and Creative Writing in Asheville, NC, where life is good and music is wonderful. He also plays drums in a blues and soul band, writes fiction and poetry, and paints to calm a restless spirit. He is married to his favorite person, and they have three large sons.
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Listen to a 1946 recording of Louis Armstrong play “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans”
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