John Doe No. 24

I was standing on this sidewalk in 1945

In Jacksonville, Illinois

When asked what my name was there came no reply

They said I was a deaf and sightless half-wit boy

But Lewis was my name though I could not say it

I was born and raised in New Orleans

My spirit was wild so I let the river take it

On a barge and a prayer upstream

They searched for a mother and they searched for a father

And they searched till they searched no more

The doctors put to rest their scientific tests

And they named me John Doe No. 24

And they all shook their heads in pity

For a world so silent and dark

Well there's no doubt that life's a mystery

But so too is the human heart

And it was my heart's own perfume

When the crape jasmoine bloomed on St. Charles Avenue

Though I couldn't hear the bells of the streetcars coming

By toeing the track I knew

And if I were an old man returning

With my satchel and porkpie hat

I'd hit every jazz joint on Bourbon

And I'd hit every one on Basin after that

The years kept passing as they passed me around

From one state ward to another

Like I was an orphaned shoe from the lost and found

Always missing the other

They gave me a harp last Christmas

And all the nurses took a dance

Lately I've been growing listless

I've been dreaming again of the past

I'm wandering down to the banks of the great big muddy

Where the shotgun houses stand

I am seven years old and I feel my daddy

Reach out for my hand

While I drew breath no-one missed me

So they won't on the day that I cease

Put a sprig of crape jasmine with me

To remind me of New Orleans

I was standing on this sidewalk in 1945

In Jacksonville, Illinois