Up from Orleans, a poem

Up from Orleans
By Mike Marcellino

Up from Orleans
Joan
cross
silver
gold
from a
distance
shining knight
Only 21.
How did she do it?
Only 21.

Mountains,
right
of Tuscaloosa
ahead
and
behind
a
steel
stacks
a
Birmingham
west of
Gadsden,
Alabama.

Sun breaks
through,
tries
to,
on the
rise,
mountains
a
Alabama
lighting
lilacs
violet
spotting
evergreens,
beds of
old wheat
rusty
dirt
strips
farm
up from
Orleans
driving
north
through
deep
south
black rock mission.

Princess
of
Alabama
copper
orange
cruising,
pure,
brown
matching
hair,
straight
as a lace.

Princess
of
Alabama
out of
space!
While cherry
blossoms
shaped
like
a
round
Chrysanthemum
trees
upside
down,
cows
resting
on grass,
2 horses grazing
Pale
&
Roan.

Escaped
capture
at Brownsville Station,
headed
for Bowling
Green,
the Franklin
scene,
hid in
Mammouth
Cave
from
the Armies of the Queen.

Ran up
along
31 w
fast track.
Forces
of horsemen
headed
for the
Ohio
River
crossing.

Forces
of horsemen
rising
up
against
the Armies of the Queen.

Up from Orleans, copyright 2009 by Mike Marcellino