Indigo

Indigo soaks in the rotting vat up high
Turning the wet residue blue.
It’s the first step in making a dye
With the labor of an enslaved crew.

Flowing to the battery vat below,
Bound men beat and beat the blue broth
As foaming suds emerge and grow.
Then feather-sprinkled oil separates the airy froth.

After that slaves move the muddy scum
To the deviling vat.
When it looks like blue gum,
It’s pressed into sacks big and fat.

Cut with a wire and dried in the sun,
Indigo sells for a fortune.
It enriches the slaver and the plantation.
How much rests on slavery’s foundation?

 Immigrant’s Dilemma

 From the window of a cold palazzo
Across Sicily’s barren panorama
I see only an ocean of sorrow
That carried him to Louisiana.

He left to find a better tomorrow
By cutting cane with all his strength.
Across that sad ocean should I follow?
With children in steerage the voyage length.

To him in that distant land I will go
With our sweet babies, anxious and restless,
To join the best man they will ever know.

In that far-off place of toil and promise—
Albeit friend and kin I must let go—
There’s hope for freedom and justice.

 Mardi Gras on St. Charles Avenue

“What are you?” a stranger asks
The children in costume and Mardi Gras masks
Who picnic on the neutral ground
Waiting for the parade to come around.

At the curb Dads place tall stepladders
For children to perch above the clatter
For, when Rex arrives with music and throws,
Everyone runs and anything goes.

Just as river tugs steer huge steamboats,
Tractors tow colorful and fanciful floats.
The gay music of marching bands
Delights dancing fans waving hands.

Riding a tall float one masked “Mister”
Is an excited kid’s older sister.
Carnival on the Avenue is a family affair
Devoid of any Bourbon Street flair.

Far from the Quarter and the tourists,
Mardi Gras remains at its purest
A last joyous prelude to Lent
With its ashes and time to repent.

Dennis Ferrara is a native of Louisiana where he earned his B.A. from Tulane University and J.D. from Louisiana State University. He began writing poetry and fiction after a legal career in Washington, D.C. He is currently following a writing course at George Mason University as he works on a multigenerational historical novel set in Louisiana. dennisferrara@hey.com