"HERE LIES VERA"

From: "Ned Sublette"

i said i was going away, but i just saw something that i can't keep to myself. you may have seen the story about the woman named vera who lay dead at the corner of jackson and magazine. i've walked along this sidewalk many times. i practically memorized the up-and-down contour of its broken sidewalk.  



this was this morning's report:

Sunday morning, a woman's body remained lying at the corner of Jackson Avenue and Magazine Street - a business area in the lower Garden District with antique shops on the edge of blighted housing. The body had been there since at least Wednesday.

As days passed, people covered her with blankets or plastic.



By Sunday, a short wall of bricks had been built around her body, holding down a plastic tarpaulin. On it, someone had spray-painted a cross and the words, "Here lies Vera. God help us."

i didn't get what this was saying from the description, until i saw a picture of it. they improvised an *above-ground* tomb for her. the way it's done in new orleans.

--O.W.