“i was standing on the sidewalk in 1945” “in jacksonville, illinois”
TRANSCRIPT
JOHN DOE # 24
By
Mary Chapin Carpenter
“I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945”
“In Jacksonville, Illinois”
http://postcards.bidstart.com/Dunlap-Hotel-Jacksonville-Illinois-Map-1940-postcard-/25390512/a.html
“When asked what my name was there came no reply”
http://www.eyesonbullying.org/images/boy7.jpg
“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”
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_R6o7ZhiSaqI/S-MgTTKi69I/AAAAAAAAALg/rLxhzUgI56c/s320/john24.jpg
“My spirit was wild, so I let the river take it”
“On a barge and a prayer upstream”
“Well 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 # 24”
“And they all shook their heads in pity”
“For a world so silent and dark”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moning/103816523/
“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 crepe jasmine bloomed”
“On St. Charles Avenue”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28918113@N07/3493321126/
“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”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48814374@N00/5243704448/
“I’d hit every jazz joint on Bourbon”
“And I’d hit everyone on Basin after that”
“The years kept passing…”
“…as they…”
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0w5sqsEfk1qiunkeo1_1280.jpg
“… passed me around”
“From one state ward…”
“…to another”
“Like I was an orphan shoe from the lost and found”
“Always missing the other”
“And they gave me a harp last Christmas”
“And all the nurses took a dance”
“But lately I’ve been growing listless”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maheshguild/6620602691/in/photostream/
“I’ve been dreaming again of the past”
New Orleans& Crepe Jasmine
“I’ve been wandering down to the banks of the great Big Muddy”
“Where the shotgun houses stand”
“I am seven years old…”
“…and I feel my Dad 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 crepe jasmine with me”
“To remind me of New Orleans”
“I was standing on the sidewalk in 1945 in Jacksonville, Illinois
http://www.getjazzgigs.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/jazzfestband.jpg
John Doe No. 24 Takes His Secret to the Grave
Published: December 05, 1993
The mystery of John Doe No. 24 outlived him.
There were few clues when he was found wandering the streets of Jacksonville in 1945, a deaf, blind teen-ager. There were no answers when he died last week.
