Chasing Utopia Read Free Page A

a tropical depression coming our way. You may want to go on up to your suite after dinner.” There were a lot of things to love about Young Island: no phones; no shoes; no roads. Of course, this was before everybody and their mother had a cell phone. You could go there to totally relax. The most dangerous thing in or near the island was a piranha who had been fed so much garbage she was friendly. No worry there. I tried to understand why I would need to go to my room after dinner. The island is quite small. No one is ever around. And why on earth would I worry about the tropical being sad? Isn’t that what a depression means? Then it hit.
    Lightning thunder winds like I have never seen. Thomas came from his room to “sit with me” but we both were scared to death. Since the island is essentially a rock that has been hollowed out we were safe except for the front window which we got way away from. The next morning when I saw the manager I said something like “Boy! Was that ever a storm!” “Yes,” he answered in that way the Brits do when they are coping with a real problem. “It’s one of our worst tropical depressions in years. We’re all right but St. Vincent was really hard-hit.” Now I understood. It was not mental. Katrina wasn’t either.
    When my phone rang and I heard Marvalene’s voice I knew she was upset. “I have to evacuate the campus again!” Yeah, but this time it was going to be real real bad.
    The story of Dillard University is a story of courageous leadership. Dillard took the hardest hit of the colleges but Dillard had the strongest person to handle it. After the Storm is an important voice to add to the lore of the wrath of Katrina. We need to understand how Marvalene Hughes put her heart on her shoulder and made everyone care that this school survive. It’s a great story. And not only because Marvalene is my friend but because she demonstrated the very best of all of us. I had to share with her that the Katrina era was the only time I had wished I was rich. I would have written a check for a million dollars and never looked back. But since I’m a poet I do have books. I culled my personal library for first editions and once the library building was rehabilitated I sent about eleven hundred first editions to help jump-start Dillard’s library. I wish I could have done more. But I, and others, gave the measure of what we had. Following Marvalene’s lead.

THE RIGHT WAY
    My grandmother’s grits
    Are so much better than mine
    Mine tend to be lumpy
    And a bit disorientated
    Though that is probably
    My fault
    I always want
    To put 1 cup grits
    Into 4 cups cold
    Water with 1 teaspoon
    Salt
    And start them all together
    Grandmother did it
    The Right Way
    She started with cold water
    That she brought
    To a boil
    Shifted the grits slowly
    Into the bubbles
    Then added her salt
    She also hummed
    While she stirred
    With her wooden spoon
    I wonder if I
    Should learn
    To sing

SPRING BLOOMS
    Everyone knows
    In Spring love grows
    Among the birds and the bees
    And the humans too
    That squiggly worm
    Which makes the soil turn
    Also falls in love
    The Robin gets up
    As an early bird should
    To catch a careless bug
    But maybe the Robin
    Has made a mistake
    And simply wanted a hug
    At any rate
    I need a date
    With you to watch the moon bloom
    We’ll sit and we’ll chat
    About this and that
    And maybe like that owl and that cat
    We’ll dance by the light of the moon the moon
    We can dance by the light of the moon

THE INTERNATIONAL OPEN
    (Tennis Players vs. Poets)
    tennis players
    and poets
    talk to themselves
    one complaining
    of unforced errors
    the other lamenting
    lovers
    not here
    poets find wonderful
    witty repartee
    to captivate
    the imagination
    of the beloved
    tennis players curse
    in languages we don’t
    understand
    explaining the loss
    of points
    poets understand loss
    old age marriage
    fatigue and well
    just not going