This poem is inspired by Jonathan Penton’s excellent book A Limited Number of Miracles from Lavender Ink (2025), in which each poem is inspired by a piece in the Bestoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It’s not just that fhey took Hercules down in front and moved him to the sculpture garden It’s another step in the gradual but steady Borg assimilation of the Caribbean/Creole New Orleans I grew up in by the WASP culture of America del Norte. It’s also sort of a reaction to a modern piece that I just could never wrap my brain around as much as I love modern Art.
Hercules The Archer
The model of a man
perfection of strength
the courage of his labors
his arrows of war
everything my retiring
bookish child self was not
but modeled in bronze
what I recognized as art
prominent in front
of Delgado Museum
He was an icon of the park
like the retired confederate general
and vanished flower clock
I mourned his loss
along with Pontchartrain Beach
D..H. Homes and K&B
even though I love modern art
despising his replacement by
Hardee's Bacon Swiss Psylocibun Burger
bad trip modeled in cold steel
Well Bottom Blues 
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