Brownie, You'Re Doing A Heck Of A Job Poem by Chen-ou Liu

debris scattered
here and there
an old man playing blues

It is not just the levees that break... the smell breaks away... from the skin when a boy is pulled out of the waters. The waters that come and stand... still with the bodies of black people, of my people... she says, her voice breaking.

a green doghouse
with FEMA on its roof
lower ninth ward at dusk

Note: The title comes from George Bush's comment on Katrina relief work done by Michael DeWayne Brown, coordinator of the federal efforts in New Orleans and Gulf Coast.