This is a quiet place
Dark oaks line
narrow streets
Canopies of
low branches and moss
Ancient creaking
streetcars scare away sleeping pigeons
This is cacophony
Sky scrapers, fanned with searchlights
Blaring speakers deafen passersby
Neon casinos and strip clubs turn night into day
Here is a holy place of high steeple churches
Long lines of the faithful
SundayGotomeeting dresses & starched white shirts
Miles of cemeteries filled with pious concrete memorials
Here is the wildest of party spots; Bacchus’ back yard
Elaborate parade costumes
Bars with dancers who are costume free
Liquor that flows as freely as the river
Water and untamed wildlife surround her
Contradictions define her
Neither time nor disaster can change her
title from mills-merci