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The Spill
Mississippi Coast Lament
Garry Breland
Garry Breland is a native Mississippian who spent much of his life out of the south. His day job is academic vice president at William Carey University, in Hattiesburg, MS. He and his wife (a college English teacher) have two children and two grandchildren.
Building, they keep one eye on the sky
The season is upon them again
The neighborhood is windrowed rubble
Here and there a new house sprouts
Among blasted oaks and concrete steps to nothing
This rebuild is slower than after Camille
Or Frederick -- most have pulled out inland
Forsaking beach views for insurability
A young woman recently apologized to me
For her name: Katrina. Who knew that a name
Could be gutted like a house that survived a tidal surge?
And now a new and cruder storm arises
From subterranean seabed depths -- Black Gold, Texas Tea --
Will they all have to move away from there?
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