Cemetery Tour, New Orleans

She looks out of place here.
First of all, she’s snowy white
And wearing a smokey the bear outfit.

The blacks are buried
In the back of the cemetery, she tells us,
Along with the Protestants.
Only the good white Catholics
Got the prime real estate.

All around us the tombs
Are crumbling and sinking
Giving up their dead
While the tourists applaud.

Published in Poetry Quarterly, 2013