Heading to Horn Island
Heading to Horn Island
Hum of the outboard
Hint of diesel
Hot Mississippi sun
Heading to Horn Island
From Biloxi, from Ocean Springs
From Pascagoula, the Singing River
Almost to Horn Island
Sitting up in the bow
Pounding over the wake
Salt spray on my face
Approaching Horn Island
Horizon of endless brilliance
Sand sugar white
Gulf lazy, azure flat
Put in to Horn Island
A spot all to ourselves
We are quiet
Only birds calling and
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
Here on Horn Island
We break out the nets
Grandma Terry and Pa Wes
Take hold of an end
Encircle a bounty of shrimp
Shrimp for boiling, shrimp for frying
Shrimp for etouffe
Here on Horn Island
We bait strings hang ‘em off the stern
Soon crabs come
Crabs for crab cakes, crabs for stuffing
Females for Grandma’s she-crab soup
Here on Horn Island
The ice chest becomes a treasure chest
Grandma Terry doles out sandwiches
After a good swim
We drink sweet iced tea
And all the while
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
Here on Horn Island
We laugh ‘bout the time the
Baby blue Ford pickup and ole trailer hitch
Got stuck in the mud
We laugh ‘bout the time
We forgot our bathing suits
Pa Wes taught us the joy of skinny dipping
Right here on Horn Island with
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
* * *
We interrupt this memory
To bring you news of a brown sheen
Oily waves lapping the dark tainted sand
Oily waves lapping the dark tainted sand
Tar balls and top kills
Top hat, you big rat
Deepwater offshore
Awful explosion
Eleven dead
Horizon of endless Hades
Sinking platform sinking hearts
Hemorrhaging millions of barrels
Oil boiling men toiling
Yet no relief in sight
Horizon of endless arrogance
Blow out preventer
Truth out preventer
No back-up plan presenter
Barrier islands
Barrier beaches
Barrier to truth
Baby birds covered in glistening greed
Sight sickening
Fishermen finished
Trawlers troubled
Marshes murdered
Waves of dead fish on Waveland beaches
Pelicans again in peril
Oil washing up on Petit Bois Island
No petty matter, not out of the woods yet
Will miles of boom hold as oily waves loom?
Horizon of endless arrogance
Dispersant used to hide the bodies
A mile down under the surface
Oil coating tiny creatures
Diamonds of diatoms
Fragile fish eggs, lacy lacerated larvae
Generational genocide
Food chain of failure
Oily waves lapping the dark tainted sand
Oily waves lapping the dark tainted sand
Oh how I long to head to Horn Island
Horizon of endless brilliance
Sand sugar white lazy Gulf azure flat
Oh how I long for
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
Gentle waves lapping the sugar white sand
(Dedicated to Terry and Wesley Green RIP in Ocean Springs, Mississippi)
