Marigny, New Orleans…

Me and my professor friend   walk along

Mardi Gras colored houses, a bootlegger

Could fire a shot through and it takes

You back, when Stevedores unloaded ships

That carried cargo from around the world

But  robots could easily replace them,

 just as a.i. could rewrite this poem in multiple 

Languages, but it can’t replace a trumpeter 

Pouring his soul and energy into every note, 

Like it can’t replace my professor’s neighbor singer friend, 

who is a bohemian jazz queen

Who can still shut down a.i. machines. 

And a.i. can’t replace the soul of the muralists, 

as we walk around Bywater, 

where people found redemption by the waters, 

who to this day keep believing in God, 

even if he doesn’t always seem to be for us, 

and even if we don’t always get what we want. 

The dog is walking us, as I’m passing a mural of Homer Plessy,

 who was arrested for riding a train,

 for thinking he was as good as a white man, 

and I’m reminded that the price of freedom, 

always has a cost, but it’s rewards, 

are found in paintings, or works of art

Even a jazz singers voice….

For Rodger Kamenetz, John Lowe, Moira Crone and Rickie Lee Jones…