Marsyas in N’Orleans
That water stripped off car paint.
That water left rashes
and flayed my skin.
I’ve played a sweet horn
up at the Apollo but I never
challenged him, this wasn’t
his revenge.
The spite of prison go’ds
made me stand for hours,
Katrina water up to my chest.
Hoarded medicine for themselves
refused me a change of clothes
denied me a shower
‘til skin parted
from muscles
and the death dogs
circled ‘round.
I lived, but
I haven’t learned my lesson
‘cause if I ever see a
Parish Prison deity
walking my way
I’ll hock up all
the gunk from my lungs
and gift him
a second skin.
Emily Severance has a BA from The University of Michigan and an MFA in studio art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Defenestration, Drunken Boat, Gargoyle, qarrtsiluni, Sisyphus, and Switched-on Gutenberg. She teaches elementary special education in New Mexico.
That water stripped off car paint.
That water left rashes
and flayed my skin.
I’ve played a sweet horn
up at the Apollo but I never
challenged him, this wasn’t
his revenge.
The spite of prison go’ds
made me stand for hours,
Katrina water up to my chest.
Hoarded medicine for themselves
refused me a change of clothes
denied me a shower
‘til skin parted
from muscles
and the death dogs
circled ‘round.
I lived, but
I haven’t learned my lesson
‘cause if I ever see a
Parish Prison deity
walking my way
I’ll hock up all
the gunk from my lungs
and gift him
a second skin.
Emily Severance has a BA from The University of Michigan and an MFA in studio art from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Defenestration, Drunken Boat, Gargoyle, qarrtsiluni, Sisyphus, and Switched-on Gutenberg. She teaches elementary special education in New Mexico.