Wearing Thin
By Diane Elayne Dees

Endless Contract Negotiations Wearing Thin on Drew Brees
Front page headline, New Orleans Times-Picayune

Endless crime wears thin on residents and tourists.
The man shot dead while holding his baby outside
the Bayou Boogaloo was only twenty-one;
he fell in front of his mother, who will soon enough
be worn from grief and trauma. The paint on abandoned
Ninth Ward houses has worn very thin,
the neighborhood dredged to within an inch
of its life, its foundation unable to absorb
the overflow of rivers of abandonment.
The Saints are hardly martyrs, but are made so
by masses of starving believers. They wait,
with eyes toward heaven, while Drew Brees is worn thin.

Diane Elayne Dees’s poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies. Diane lives in Louisiana. She publishes Women Who Serve, a blog about women’s professional tennis.