Sri Prabha's Mixed Media Sonnet

By Susannah W. Simpson

            The Fountainhead Studios, May 2013

 
Deep in Little Haiti—skirting historic homes, Section 8 
housing and Big Sam’s Minimart, you have hung a universe 
of jeweled galaxies on whitewashed walls. Jupiter balanced 
on Seattle’s Space Needle and in the Taj Mahal’s 
reflecting pool, Mercury embedded below cobalt resin. 
Resin, ancient sealant. Cohesion, a natural law. 
Modern alchemist, malleable pigments, you conjure 
paint from vats of elemental properties. Shah Jihan’s 
unfinished tomb winks back from in-laid mica flecks, 
from snowflake paint, from twig—from Venus—
from the shimmering rings of Saturn 
from the embellished edge of your grandmother’s sari
 
gold threads woven
from the physics of a new century.

---

Susannah W. Simpson has work has been published in The North American Review, Potomac, The Wisconsin Review, South Carolina Review, POET, Nimrod International, Poet Lore, Salamander, Sequestrum, SWWIM Every Day, and Xavier Review, among others. Her book, Geography of Love & Exile, was published by Cervena Barva Press in 2016. She is a hospice nurse and the Founder & Co-Director of the Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches Reading Series.

---

**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.