Just Crossing Over
errol miller
By the year 2000
you’ll forget Mulate’s great Cajun food
and the oysters at Pat’s in Henderson
after reading “The 100 Year History of Tabasco”
you’ll observe the rising and the falling
of the marshlands, the life and times
of those countless other birds
Audubon cannot catalogue
beyond the bayous the snowy egret dwells
trappers and salt miners breaking French bread
where the levee ends children juggle oranges
ladies of the night flaunt the peacock-wares
an hour away by shrimp boat the dawn
of tomorrow waits at Avery Island
the next volume of Life is massive, futuristic
dotted with red lights blinking across the water
this is the St. Anne lullaby from story books
this is the natural history of time’s flow
legendary wondrous works of woe
plants and animals and happenstance
and all the muddy classics gathering dust
carefully awaiting Paradise peaceful
Jungle Gardens beckon
exotic sunken piroque boats
on an enclave there is land, condiments
for the traveler, heaving alluvial plains
of silt and salt, this is the conservatory
o beautiful its reeds and sweet perfume
literature from the deep lagoon
of everyday comings and goings
and crepe-silk tenants rowing out
to meet the only transient God
they ever knew.
