Despite day after day of appearance
by President Bush aimed at undoing
talk about corpses
Hurricane Katrina
blew through Hollywood, Florida
the political damage from
a poor response to Hurricane Katrina,
talk about toxic soup
Palm fronds
the White House has not been able
to regain its footing,
talk about mama drowning
Cane splinters
already shaken by the war in Iraq
and a death toll exceeding 1,880.
talk about suicide
Mango branches
on the lawn
The administration on Tuesday struggled
to deflect calls for an accounting
talk about rotten stench
In New Orleans
hungry mortality
of who was responsible for a hurricane response
that even Bush acknowledged was inadequate
talk about nothing left
Provolone,
mushroom, bacon omelet
Even as Katrina was bearing down
on the Gulf Coast that Sunday night
talk about being lost
A biscuit at Grandpa’s Diner
and early Monday, Aug. 28-29,
and the national hurricane center was warning
talk about losing everything
Skip dinner
Shell a bowl of peanuts
of growing danger, the White House
didn't alter the president's plans
talk about too much talk
Wake late, check news
New Orleans destroyed
to fly from his Texas ranch to the West
to promote a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
talk about corpses
Why aren't there
ten thousand rescue helicopters
flying into New Orleans?
By the time Bush landed in Arizona that Monday,
the storm was unleashing its fury
talk about toxic soup
Why can’t an administration
that says it can rebuild Iraq
protect it's own people?
on Louisiana and Mississippi.
The president inserted into his speech
talk about mama drowning
Don't answer
only a brief promise of prayers and federal help.
He continued his schedule in California,
talk about suicide
It’s a race, class issue
“Boots or books” issue
and he didn't decide until the next day
that he should return to Washington.
talk about rotten stench
Iraq issue, troops issue!
Food or security issue?
But it took him another day to get there,
as he flew back to Texas to spend another night
talk about nothing left
“It’s human nature!”
at his home before leaving for the White House.
Once the president was in Washington,
talk about being lost
Babies sheltered w/ cardboard salvaged
from wreckage of “policy”
the criticism only intensified.
In a television interview, Bush said - mistakenly –
talk about losing everything
Platitudes
that nobody anticipated
the breach of the levees in a serious storm.
talk about too much talk
Factoids
Even Monday’s trip to the region was a redo,
hurriedly arranged by the White House. . .
Father says, “A Thousand Points of Light”
Son says, “The Armies of Compassion”
Bush raised eyebrows on his first trip
by, among other things, picking Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. –
talk about mama drowning
Even as we speak. . .
instead of the thousands of mostly poor
and black storm victims – as an example of loss.
Bicycling medicines
from pharmacy to catastrophe
That they would be refugees
“Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house— ” Bush said,
“he’s lost his entire house—there’s going to be a fantastic house.
And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.”
Bush gave FEMA chief Brown – the face for many
of the inadequate federal response –
Aliens in their own country
Because they’re poor, black, poor, white
a hearty endorsement. "Brownie,
you're doing a heck of a job," Bush said.
talk about too much talk
“Making their own situations
in a dog eat dog world”
Later in Biloxi, Miss.,
Bush tried to comfort two stunned women
talk about too much talk
“Refugees”
wandering their neighborhood
clutching Hefty bags, looking in vain for something
talk about too much talk
“Evacuees”
to salvage from the rubble of their home.
Bush kept insisting they could find help
talk about too much talk
“Flood victims”
at a Salvation Army center down the street,
even after another bystander informed him
talk about too much talk
talk about corpses
it had been destroyed.
And at his last stop that day,
talk about too much talk
“It’s time for Bush to go”
at the airport outside of New Orleans,
Bush lauded the increasingly desperate city
as a great town because he used to go there
and “enjoy myself—occasionally too much.”
talk about too much talk
whine, whine
go away
come again another day
alk about corpses
maybe ten thousand corpses
talk about too much talk
too much, too much
I look outside
Crows in the mango tree
