how warm did the water have to be before it gave the sky permission to crumble when the levees broke open did the ocean intend to swallow the city or find refuge inside of it is it wrong to love something more after it has already disappeared is it still called disappearing if no one knew you were there the scientist tells me that we have been disappearing for a long time now the evangelist tells me this is what happens when you make a mockery of time the television tells me this is really the best thing that could have happened to a burning city my mother was born in a city that is asking how this happened i was born in a city that knows how this happened i was born in the same city as my mother i was born in this city which i am told makes it mine my father was not born in this city but has lived here longer than I have been alive can you claim something as your own if you don't remember how you found it i come from a city that is drowning while being told it is rinsing itself clean