Plaquemines Parish
“Some Words Written Diamond Joe’s”
by Joe MF Wilson
5.09.08
I know you’re waiting for me to write about it. You named me for it, you left me with it, you’d sometimes talk to me about the beginning of the story of it before the story was finished, as if it ever finishes. You expect it from me, you know it’s right, but you are so much like me that we’ll say for the sake of clarity: You are Me- so I don’t trust you and I won’t follow you in a straight line. Never. Not this time (all I know). So maybe you shouldn’t, won’t, can’t read any more of this. Go ahead.
Diamond Trailer Park, Louisiana. “The 450”. The second largest FEMA trailer park site in Louisiana for some time post-Katrina, still exists today I write but not forever. Maybe not by now- as you read. Feels kinda cliché, my confused grasping of what I think and think I know.
The Fo’ Fitty.
They call you “Diamond Joe”, they built your ego up enough with this name and with their praise for me, enough for me to deal with some emotional bullshit for so long, enough for me to forgive myself for so many stupid immature mistakes I made, enough for me to feel self-righteous enough to try and make a difference all by myself there some days, or with a group of people that I had no interest in being around- let yet alone leading- on some days. And then there was the politics of representing an upstarted grassroots nonprofit with a mission statement that was always under revision but involved the words “compassion”, “creativity”, “relief”, “Louisiana”--- damn words --- penned, chalked, painted, typed into websites, and so passionately argued over and then erased. Time and again once in a while always I’m already starting to forget. And your name gets written, not yours.
news
stories by author