Explore southwest Louisiana,
A fertile swath
of swamps,
Bayous and rolling plains
People friendly and kind
Step into a mixture of voices spoken
French with gliding vowels so honeyed
Zydeco music fuels the blood and sizzles the soul
Delighted your feet move unbidden
To button accordion, and fiddle guitar.
In Lafayette, the Blue Moon, honky-tonk in open air
Dance nightly, or eat of traditional Cajun,
Randol’s hall a giant pine dance floor,
For historical family experience step back in time,
To fifty eight years ago, La Poussiere Cajun Dancehall,
in Breaux Bridge, Saturday and Sunday nights,
Ages eight to eighty dance to the fiddle.
On Saturday morns they flock to Mamou,
Fred’s Lounge’s doors arrive before eight a.m.
Or pay the price of wedging through the door
To hear 18th century French songs
Dancing mandatory, no two-stepping allowed
Festivals four hundred throughout the year
In towns and cities in Louisiana
Fill the need for Cajun, zydeco, jazz, country, and blues.
The foods exotic “chaudin,” or stuffed pig’s stomach
Boudin sausages and Boudin balls, brown bag of
cracklings
At the Best Stop market in Scott,
Olde Tyme Grocery has shrimp, catfish, barbecued ham,
poultry,
But the po’boy stuffed with crunchy fried oysters is
best
St. Martindale’s southeast of Layfette to St. John,
Tasty dark roux seafood gumbo with fried alligator
entices will delight,
At Prejean’s restaurant tempts fried or grilled
alligator
Gumbo, combining crab, shrimp and crawfish.
Their signature
dish catfish Prejean,
Battered, fried catfish slathered thick, spicy shellfish
stew
Steve n Pat’s Bon Temps Grill allures
With pork chop stuffed with spicy, heavily smoked pork,
and apples,
Terrific grilled shrimp with a Worcestershire-tinged
cream sauce
Set over jalapeño-spiked grits is another culinary
delight.
Daiquiris Supreme drive through is a tasters’ joy.
Two dozen varieties to choose
But no driving and drinking with one still
The night draws to a close
The moon wanes and sighs
Morning has come as the sun rises
Café Du Monde in New Orleans beckons
Beignets and coffee for all day
As powdered sugar drips
From your fingertips
Bidden to your mouth
As you drink in the sounds
And bustle of New Orleans
Peace surrounds your soul
Life is slows to a even keel
In Louisiana you feel
Like a long lost relative
You've found home
©Sheilagh Lee August 4, 2016
