Day 70

]Amtrak, Crescent: Atlanta – New Orleans,

Saturday, November 12, 2016

The Last 100 Days of the Presidency of Barack Obama

Travel: foraging through the voices, the fragments:

Hattiesburg, Meridian, …… Birmingham: On the way to New Orleans

Four Black Conductors gather in the empty dining car.

The Supreme Court Justices. That’s the most important. We lost that. Lost that for a longtime.

First it is a whisper that becomes a shout.

One is the boss. Later, alone in her chair she catalogs the passengers.

I hold up my iPhone.

Do you want to know what is happening in New York, in fact, all over the country?

Yes I am aware.

What do you think will happen?

The Process will take its course.

How can anyone take this guy seriously?

The Process will take its course.

I think something is going to happen. It’s got to happen.

The Process will take its course.

Are you Union?

Yes I am active in the Union. I’m the head of it. If it weren’t for the Union, I would be changing diapers, cleaning houses, all that.

My baby went to college.

Did you see Birmingham just now? Lot of negative history. Still won’t go there.

You be careful in New Orleans. Some difficult people down there.

Getting ready for the new official expression of one uncontained bigotry upon another.

Through the window: red dirt, fall pine browns, shadows:

The singular two story orange-brown brick chimney standing there without a house. The country?

Travel. Uncalled for or not, the guides keep appearing. Present one moment. A ghost,the next.