Cry

By Beverly Boyd

Cry for Louisiana.

We, too, were once New France.

Like you we were bought and sold

by an emperor gone mad,

and the Marais des Cygnes, our river,

fed you through our heart –

through the Kaw and Osage and Missouri

passed your long distant shores;

the Mississippi bears remembrance

however far we are apart.

Marais des Cygnes and Kansas sunflowers

merge old and new times.

We cry for Louisiana,

with us bought from France.

Note: Kansas was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

– Beverly Boyd is an English professor at Kansas University. Please submit via e-mail to mpaget@ljworld.com or send to Mindie Paget, 645 N.H., Lawrence 66044, attn: Poet’s Showcase.