walkin' through New Orleans

actually the title of the song is

'walkin to New Orleans'

but hey this is my page and i'll write what i like

wandering a block behind St Charles

in the Garden Quarter we find the Evergreen

flower shop

a curious place

that looks as though time has fallen asleep inside

the kindly proprietor insisted on making us a present

of a can of peach juice

in the vacant lot next door

only fragments of paving remain

the house succumbed to Katrina

grand houses line up little ways further along the street

suspect a black panther or two may lurk in the bushes somewhere

N'Orlins has a warm cheery surface

a

'hi honey, you's sure lurkin purdy today'

ambience

but we suspect a darker current simmers beneath the smiles

we speculate that plump tourists are lulled with

doctored daiquiris

before being lured away from the bright lights of Bourbon street

and cut into bite-size lumps for the 'gators

- all those alligators in the gator farms

must get sick of eating chicken all the time

in a sidestreet off Royal we find the Kitchen Witch

a fabulous bookstore harbouring

cookbooks old and new

garnished with lovely collections of things

such as these dragon cups

which remind me a little of some i once had

from my grandmother

that were consumed by the 83 fires

a while later

an emerald dragonfly flies out of the night

and into another store

blessing us with a moment of shimmering beauty

[images - except for that last one - courtesy of 'Helga' in the Camerabag app for iPhone]