Defender of the Citrus A New Orleans Love Story

<p>What does it mean to survive a pandemic? When the outside world turns lethal, how do we adapt to this new reality? In <i>Defender of the Citrus</i>, award-winning poet Benjamin Morris offers an intimate account of navigating the COVID years in New Orleans, Louisiana, a city where the party never learned how to stop. Yet this is no ordinary memoir: as lockdown sets in, Morris writes as an immune patient (at heightened risk of the virus), a carpenter and new homeowner (of a ramshackle fixer-upper), a fledgling citrus farmer (of five finicky young trees), and most of all, a new parent—of an unforgettable rescue cat named Snickers, a feisty yet loving tortoiseshell who soon becomes the only thing he can trust in an uncertain and dangerous new world. <br/> <br/> Finding beauty amid isolation, solace in sawdust, and abundance among thorns, <i>Defender of the Citrus</i> is a profound meditation on a journey whose end seemed to elude us all. Keenly observed with a poet’s eye, and fearless in its exploration of silence, memory, and loss, this book is a must-read for anyone who weathered those years searching not just for faith and hope, but for something deeper still—with or without a companion at their side.</p>