Voo doo Hoo doo Who dat

a69Dis here is Nawlins
in all its funk
and jive
and stink
and rhythm,
pulsing endlessly
from bars,
cafes and
corner joints,
calling without cease
to seduce you,
my underprivileged
out of towner,
into the den of Easy.

Every smile,
every come-on
every to-go cup
bids you
throw your societal
prudishness
to the gutter
and flow
with the muddy
mother river.

This tide
of sweaty humans
sweeps you
down the street
momentarily cleansed
of all your past.

What you gonna do
to remember
this strut,
back home?

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Blaise Kielar received Honorable Mention in the 2022 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize for an excerpt from his memoir in progress, "Be Heard: The Quiet Kid Who Started the World’s Loudest Violin Shop." He opened Chapel Hill’s first violin shop in 1978 and retired from a music retail career by transitioning Electric Violin Shop into the first worker-owned co-op music store in the United States. He plays jazz violin and clarinet in several bands and leads the Bulltown Strutters, Durham’s community New Orleans brass band.