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New Orleans, Soul City
By Michael Tivana, September 14, 2005

These are the times that try our souls

Every nation has a heart
Every people have a soul
When the heart comes apart
Do the righteous know to show?

The walls around the heart
Have crumbled in confusion
Was it caused by a man shark
Or hurricane intrusion

When does incompetence
become deliberate
marshalling the innocent
hostage illegitimate

Orleans, the heart, is under water
Where is Joan to break the siege
Tears are flowing, it does matter
America cries, set my people free

The ancestors beg for mercy
Rising from their graves
With Duke, Ray, and Louie
The soul will be saved

The day the music died
Halliburton wasted no time
To put competition aside
Everywhere else this is called a crime

The soul of the anti-Christ
Preys on human misery
Carpetbaggers appear so nice
As they search for opportunity

The heart relies upon FEMA fools
For its delicate mending
But the doctors went to schools
With Mengele attending

Will the civilized quickly crumble
Under weighty oppression
The weak do cower and tremble
While the strong are put in prison

You want a revolution
Change the rules to the game
Be active in a solution
No one but yourself to blame

Set sail your banner flying
With kindness and generosity
You will end the peoples' crying
You will free all humanity

This too shall pass
The heart will pump again
The soul will rise at last
The Phoenix will sing and then
The Saints will come marching in