AP - Mitchell L. H. Douglas

Mitchell L. H. Douglas

Mitchell L. H. Douglas is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). His poetry has appeared in Callaloo, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (University of Georgia Press), Crab Orchard Review, and Zoland Poetry Volume II (Zoland Books) among others. A founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, Cave Canem fellow, and Poetry Editor for PLUCK!: the Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem, is his debut collection. Before it's publication by Red Hen Press, Cooling Board was a runner-up for the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, a semifinalist for the 2007 Blue Lynx Prize, and a semifinalist for the 2006 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he resides in Indianapolis.

The Battle of New Orleans

The body is no stranger to water,

but all that is inside, undercover.

When water swallows

our homes to roofs, strands owners

to bake on the slope of a shingled beach,

that is an unfamiliar ocean.

Bush calls on ’Merica from Jackson Square ,

the wrought iron-guarded green on Decatur

up the block from Café Du Monde.

I don’t hear a word—

all I can think about

is the honeymoon six months before,

taking your picture beneath the statue

of General Andrew, the bronze horseback soldier

that peeks over Dubya’s shoulder.

You wonder what’s saved

& what’s submerged,

if the spry old Creole woman

who offered pralines on the house

was still gracious, her spirit still buoyant

the day the levees gave.