Muddy Boots - Return to a Waste Land

into the rising sun nearing final descent into keesler
depressing views of the homeland devistation is awed
its impact is like that of a drunk speaking with a slur
as the landscape looks as if satan himself had clawed
their stares of dispair change their vision to blurred
from its immensity over the acadian lands so broad

in his tired mind is pictured the last view of his estate
as the wheels touch down on a darkened beaten runway
he joins the file ushered out to the tarmac in ruined state
his orders are given to expediate help without delay
the score is kept as he read of the loss in paper slate
as he rushes in vehicles to the chaos and broken foray

the roads cluttered with impossible piles of twisted debris
slowly he makes his way to the place of his sister's abode
entire neighborhoods surgically removed as katrina flees
up to the heartland it cries in remnant rage its wet load
leaving a wasteland in need of repair with stauch degrees
he exits his humvee to the smell of life in state of corrode

his goes door to door looking for remains and a survivor
in pales disbelief of the contortion of places he has been
in fear of finding friends and family lost in the squallor
he wonders how his brethens can renew and begin
in the state of absolute destruction no one could ignore
noticing that he is of the only ones searching this trash bin

word of the lack of action of those giving his ultimate orders
enrage him as he stresses from the lifelessness and loss found
a company cameracrew follow him in dismay with recorders
finding full sized pickers on telephone poles wrapped tightly wound
no telling where neighborhoods begin or end lacking typical borders
his hair raises from what is a most eerie, faint and far off sound

he carefully treads closes to the source of the dismal soft pallor
and what would be entering the former abode of an elderly couple
he wades through the sqaundering of katrina's massive holler
finds what appears to a lifeless torn body as if trampled by a bull
the man he once knew identified only by dog tag around his collar
stops in shock, sobs uncontrollably his composure kept unsuccessful

the soft moans from the distance to his sad ears they return
his search begins again in solitary panic and woeful disarray
finding an elderly woman as frail as a southern beech fern
medics and a medivac hurry to the scene slowly in pale dismay
as her tragic condition for the worse takes a terrible turn
from the souls of the team of rescuers dispair ebbs away

a dog is carried from a roof and a cat is pulled from a tree
a child found beneath rubble or just stuck in the sandy flood
rescuers are injuried from nature's booby traps set free
scenes he plays over and over slowly walking through the crud
after a long days end he returns to the checkpoint ready to flee
as his now distant past of dusty boots now covered in mud