A Blind Lady is Singing

in front of Walgreens on Royal in the rain, face screwed up into a pale wrinkled sun "Those were the days,

my friends"—O the actors and theaters, the poets and readings, the painters and galleries—"we thought they'd never end, we'd live . . ."

The Quarter is shut down, Canal St. an ashen ghost town. Hail the conquering heroes from Halliburton and FEMA triumphant in a tourist buggy.