Debris
- Debris
Wooden pilings from a shotgun house pink insulation loose and threaded a blonde-haired doll a toilet stucco crumbled to sand a football helmet the face of a metal fan a sign: Demolition Alert a mattress spiking metal a front door a stove a beach chair a crushed pickup truck a soup kettle yellow bedsheet twisted in a tree a rocking horse a refrigerator with school snapshots taped to the door sandbags a stop sign a baby bottle an armoire shredded window screens a sign: Do Not Destroy dented fender of a school bus a leather couch a claw-foot bathtub a cyclone fence pleated like a fan on poster board: 405 Paris Avenue a ketchup bottle a wheelchair a refrigerator spray-painted Help Me Jesus slab of wallboard spilled with mildew door like a blank eyehole a sign: For Sale by Owner a sign: No Demo a sign: Keep Out a torn Blue Roof unspooled yellow caution tape sheetrock black rot a sign: We’re Coming Home [End Page 255]
Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans and is the author of two books of poetry and a novel. She is working on a collection of poems, “Breach,” about Hurricane Katrina, and she directs the new MFA program at Queens College, City University of New York.
