The Attic Dwellers

Lower Ninth Ward October 2006


We heard the rumors in New Orleans
About the people still living in attics
Months after the flood waters had receded
Cramped and stifled under the battered eaves
Of their houses while the mold rapidly grew
Up the trashed and torn walls below
And the paint outside peeled wherever
The foul sandblasted water had rushed against it
Some would come down at night
Creeping through the debris
Like the feral cats and dogs
The only ones alive in the inky dark
When the roadblocks were closed at dusk
In the day neighbors would bring them
Food and water and maybe talk to them
Trying to coax them out into the world
But mostly it seemed they were greeted with silence
The attic dwellers preferring the safety
Of the thin roof that protected them
From the wind-driven bullets of rain
And the fragile floor that held them still
A life raft above the death below