New Orleans Saint

[good4somethingbum]

New Orleans SaintI’d see him on Bourbon St., singin’…stompin’ his feetPlayin’ blues to stay fedHe looked both sad n wise, tears tattooed ‘neath his eyesRed cross on his old foreheadHe’d close his eyes and moan, his blues sliced to the boneLike Gideon’s bladeAnd when that storm rolled in, on wicked wheels of windHe just stood there and playedBut water rose and levees moaned and straineddrowning the blues of the New Orleans saintTrapped up on my rooftop, as a million raindropsseemed tattooed in the skyThat night my prayers reached out, clawing through the cloudsTo prepare my way on highThen a shadow of a man, gave me his bony handAnd we paddled off in the darkBut was it Jean Batist, or a hoodoo priestThat paddled with his guitarCome sunrise he was gone but I remainedWith others saved by the New Orleans saintNow when the night blows dark n stormyI feel someone reachin’ for meThen north winds sing as soft as Aaron NevilleChasing off thunder and the devilAnd gambling boat rumors tell, that when Old Man River swellsAnd the moon’s a fresh minted dimeHe sails beneath the stars, paddling with his guitarOn an old box of pineCos the water hasn’t bound or chainedThe soul of the New Orleans saint©2007 Robert George