Ruined houses
Vacant windows
Staring death by storm water
A siege of dispassionate fury
Tearing impassively
Through generations' treasure troves
Left empty now.
Silence echoes through broken doors
And tears fall unheard in mourning
Each X on each spot of sorrow
Blood red.
From far away ring the notes
Of a street band playing
Their instruments too are crying
For the unturned soil
And splintered rubble
Heard only by ghosts in forsaken New Orleans.