NINE NEW ORLEANS HAIKU French Quarter Intimacies through weathered wood dark on shadowed streets ancient voices whisper history * * * New Orleans Rainbow from buttered gold to purpled black, the sundry shades of my people shine * * * Our Natures Rise hard core nights are so erotic, a whiff of the breeze is narcotic * * * Sunrise On The River shy dawn tenderly gold tongue kisses the rippling river's flowing face * * * Quarter Moon Rise soft moon shimmers out of cloudy dress, stirred by night's suggestive caress * * * All Nite Long amid dancing & drinking til dewed dawn, nights stretch 24 hours long * * * The Spice Of Life cayenne in our blood we dance, eat, laugh, cry & love with peppered passion * * * St. Louis Cemetery Crypt bones float in raised stone, white, altared graves, blood transformed, become black souled thrones * * * Makes You Go Oohhh! sing of lusty foods so savory they buck jump cross your tongue's dance floor —kalamu ya salaam