Passing Life

Outside these walls

St. Charles breaths and pulses

past dark hulks of

columned mansions and through

fragrances sweetened

by magnolia and jasmine

into Canal where a

smooth clarinet

answers a staccato trumpet

penetrating the night

and the flow of life

mimics the sweep

of the Mississippi.

We dive and dance tense

against the night

pulsing and breathing as one

with the rhythmic

flow of passing life clinging

tight into sultry slick darkness

straining to ignite

deep within

a spark

of

profundity.