FIRST HALF
“The heart speaks in whispers.”
Corinne Bailey Rae
I was there when the levees broke.
Though I was safe in my ward when the monster lost all restraint and unleashed watery havoc on New Orleans, I lived in the city.
I later saw the devastation left in the wake of the beastly storm. We frantically gathered our things, fled our home for higher ground. My family left to survive.
There were those who stayed too long. Remained when they should have fled.
They did not live to regret it.
Now, I’m making the same mistake. I’ve remained when I should have fled.
I witness the exact moment when this monster loses all restraint. His fury, his rage rush at me like a wall of water. Like a gale-force wind, he blows over me.
I am the devastation left in his wake.
As the world goes black, I see stars. A flash of brilliance. A light I should have acknowledged long ago. As the stars dim and the darkness encroaches, I understand I’m like those who stayed too long, blindly assuming their survival.
I fear that I, like them, will not live to regret it.
