Originally Published in the Orange County Register

 

They gathered in the superdome

With hanging steel and floating chrome

To wait the start of a different game

Busting rules as she boldly came

Growing infamous was Katrina's name

 

Wild dark and seething, earthly forces

Gathering momentum, changing courses

Not course of line but course of wind

Her first down damage would soon begin

 

The whistles screamed as she pounced on the field

Waiting within her gigantic eye shield

To defend the team in the last French Quarter

We wished and prayed her time would be shorter

 

All felt her power as she ate up the yards

The stands and the stadiums drawn into shards

Her attendant winds announced her arrival

As thunder clapped, they ran for survival

 

Yes on came Killer Katrina

The daughter of Neptune and sister El ñina

Blasted through our weakened defenses

In the onslaught fought her fight relentless

 

Into town she flew and raged

Wind driven, growing bolder with age

Tore up the turf in her touchdown quest

As she swelled and lifted her rising crest

 

She rode the clouds

From her heartless core

No matter who fell

Or who would implore

 

On the playing fields of New Orleans

The players were drowning, no ref was seen

All the world watched the tackled land go down

One time-out saw Katrina's fierce eye, 'neath a deep, mean frown

 

Offensive gales in long charging drives wailed

Her waterboys multiplied, emptied their pails

We looked in her eye with her savage stare

And drew away when too much to bear

 

With each wet, strong, steady lunge

Into overtime she plunged

When her breath had passed, each team had lost

We paid the cold and bitter cost

 

Everyone played in Katrina's Game

And America grew up as we huddled that day

She had to drop her adolescent ways

With a defeated defense, the team drew no praise

 

When she left the town

The spectators came

But when they cried, "Stop her!"

Few came. What a shame.

 

From the west she drove, and then the south

Opened her huge insatiable mouth

Left drowned the deep and sorry South

Bitten by the Cyclops mouth

 

Air and water, fire and earth

Gathered force to change the home team's worth

The human toll is what to count

On minds, on hearts where the tally mounts

 

The score at the end

At a loss to comprehend

But a chance to play

This game better perhaps...again

 

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