Lights Across the Mississippi

Lights across the Mississippi, Algiers Point at night

ships and barges steal to port before dawn's breaking light

and I wish that I'd come sooner but maybe now it's time

I lie in bed on Pelican Avenue and listen to the church bells chime

Canal streetcar to the French Market

the voodoo temple up Rampart Street

past the St. Louis cemetery tombs

where the souls of the living and dead still meet

beyond the Garden District gates where elegant mansions rule

wandering through the French Quarter to follow the Bourbon Street fools

out the River Road to Laura

the cries of the slaves still haunt the cane

the fields of Oak Alley Plantation

sweltering fields under a driving rain

down by the Mississippi

I touch the waves that lap the shore

I must leave you now my old friend

until I return once more