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”

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“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…”

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“… 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.