I had a vague yearning to go to New Orleans. 

Vague because there was no hindrance to my going. Consequentially no urgency either. 

Now I can’t go anymore. 

The city may be re-built, but it will never be what it was. The glamour, the poverty, the laziness. Everything that made it the Big Easy. 

So I donated some clothes. 

And I fantasize that some of my clothes will clothes some of the people who used to be part of the New Orleans that stopped being. 

And that image, in my mind’s eyes, completes my encounter with New Orleans - completes it before it had a chance to start.

Alas.