Mia: Two Poems
Winter Painting, Circa 1978 | Have You Seen Her?

Winter Painting, Circa 1978

It was the winter of God.

Gripped by a blizzard, gathering dark tempest
night fell without tenor, turned to Pollock's hell

By morning, buried in six feet of snow
sheared cornfields of speared stalks vanished
beneath a continuous aluminum of blinding light

Every electric phone line snapped from its pole
emergency vehicles stalled, the death toll climbing:
water flow from burst pipes hammered the heaters
while goldfish, eyes and mouths agape, in one shudder
remained suspended in a cloud of solid oxygen

The world outside His window no less brutal:
black tree limbs clawed apart a Vincentian sky
moaned every time the wind ripped away
another root from the mother soil; bright
red berries, scattered trace drops of blood,
laid bare across her winter white breast

Three days, now, barricaded in this tundra,
the sudden hush of collapsed air, no birds
no smoke curls, or blur of intonation in sight
for once, a linen sky scraped of movement
turned to the brush held in the Master's hand
and begged for spring.

Have You Seen Her?

That Texas sun across red skies
chased by a hot wind. You'll feel
like a whorehouse, all sweaty
and compromised, wilted within

still, you'll get through the desert
on axle grease and smell of burnt tires
thumbing it all the way to Waco—unaware
that the road to hell is paved with blood.

Barely thirteen, alone and confused
one smile shy of nervous laughter—
not a song to keep you company
I prayed you'd come home.

Poet's Biography:

	Mia was born in Korea. Currently she resides in California. Recent publications include 3rd Muse Poetry, Mentress Moon, Pierian Springs and others.
Editor's note: Mia signals two paintings in her poem, "Winter Painting, Circa 1978". The word-picture of the blizzard is inspired by Jackson Pollock's "Lavender Mist". An image of this painting resides at the National Gallery of Art. The "Vincention sky" is a reference to the sky in Van Gogh's "Windmill on Montmartre". An image can be found at the Van Gogh gallery.