Pamela J. Polley

Spirit of New Orleans

Chartreuse Muse, 28 x 22 inchesChartreuse Muse, 70cm x 55cm

Brennan’s Blues, 28 x 22 inchesBrennan’s Blues, 70cm x 55cm, Sold

Metairie Roan, 28 x 22 inchesMetairie Roan, 70cm x 55cm

Pink Lady, 22 x 28 inches, SoldPink Lady, 55cm x 70cm, Sold

Ribbons for Marie, 22 x 28 inches, SoldRibbons for Marie, 55cm x 70cm, Sold

Pastis Palace, 22 x 28 inchesPastis Palace, 55cm x 70cm, Sold

Ready for Rex, 28 x 22 inchesReady for Rex, 70cm x 55cm, Sold

Home for Comus, 28 x 22 inchesHome for Comus, 70cm x 55cm, Sold

For Jean

I walk the backstreets of your Quarter

Narrow, tripping over ancient cobbles

Your hideaway dark and dank, moss

lingering inside by the waxen taper.

Were you really a blacksmith? Did you

Shod the hooves of the jaunty mules,

Ancestors of those I see today?

Not pulling coffins or contraband

But black-knee-socked tourists, straw

boaters predominant on bald heads

Jingling down the Basin bound for

Beads, cups and calliope tooting tourist traps.

Unlike you. You were a devilish swashbuckler

Raven hair, brooding eyes with a vision

Of what you wanted from the Delta queens

and Voodoo bayous. They were yours.

They still are.

7/98