Katrina

Despite day after day of appearance
by President Bush aimed at undoing

talk about corpses

Hurricane Katrina

blew through Hollywood, Florida

the political damage from
a poor response to Hurricane Katrina,

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Palm fronds

the White House has not been able
to regain its footing,

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Cane splinters

already shaken by the war in Iraq
and a death toll exceeding 1,880.

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Mango branches
on the lawn

The administration on Tuesday struggled
to deflect calls for an accounting

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In New Orleans
hungry mortality

of who was responsible for a hurricane response
that even Bush acknowledged was inadequate

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Provolone,
mushroom, bacon omelet

Even as Katrina was bearing down
on the Gulf Coast that Sunday night

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A biscuit at Grandpa’s Diner

and early Monday, Aug. 28-29,
and the national hurricane center was warning

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Skip dinner
Shell a bowl of peanuts

of growing danger, the White House
didn't alter the president's plans

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Wake late, check news
New Orleans destroyed

to fly from his Texas ranch to the West
to promote a new Medicare prescription drug benefit.

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Why aren't there
ten thousand rescue helicopters
flying into New Orleans?

By the time Bush landed in Arizona that Monday,
the storm was unleashing its fury

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Why can’t an administration
that says it can rebuild Iraq
protect it's own people?

on Louisiana and Mississippi.
The president inserted into his speech

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Don't answer

only a brief promise of prayers and federal help.
He continued his schedule in California,

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It’s a race, class issue
“Boots or books” issue

and he didn't decide until the next day
that he should return to Washington.

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Iraq issue, troops issue!
Food or security issue?

But it took him another day to get there,
as he flew back to Texas to spend another night

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“It’s human nature!”

at his home before leaving for the White House.
Once the president was in Washington,

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Babies sheltered w/ cardboard salvaged
from wreckage of “policy”

the criticism only intensified.
In a television interview, Bush said - mistakenly –

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Platitudes

that nobody anticipated
the breach of the levees in a serious storm.

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Factoids

Even Monday’s trip to the region was a redo,
hurriedly arranged by the White House. . .

Father says, “A Thousand Points of Light”

Son says, “The Armies of Compassion”

Bush raised eyebrows on his first trip
by, among other things, picking Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. –

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Even as we speak. . .

instead of the thousands of mostly poor
and black storm victims – as an example of loss.

Bicycling medicines
from pharmacy to catastrophe

That they would be refugees

“Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house— ” Bush said,
“he’s lost his entire house—there’s going to be a fantastic house.
And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.”

Bush gave FEMA chief Brown – the face for many
of the inadequate federal response –

Aliens in their own country

Because they’re poor, black, poor, white

a hearty endorsement. "Brownie,
you're doing a heck of a job," Bush said.

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“Making their own situations
in a dog eat dog world”

Later in Biloxi, Miss.,
Bush tried to comfort two stunned women

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“Refugees”

wandering their neighborhood
clutching Hefty bags, looking in vain for something

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“Evacuees”

to salvage from the rubble of their home.
Bush kept insisting they could find help

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“Flood victims”

at a Salvation Army center down the street,
even after another bystander informed him

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it had been destroyed.
And at his last stop that day,

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“It’s time for Bush to go”

at the airport outside of New Orleans,
Bush lauded the increasingly desperate city
as a great town because he used to go there
and “enjoy myself—occasionally too much.”

talk about too much talk

whine, whine
go away
come again another day

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maybe ten thousand corpses

talk about too much talk

too much, too much

I look outside
Crows in the mango tree

August 28- September 16, 2005