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.

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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.

by Susannah W. Simpson

Psychiatric Ward, Bed 23 Window

When pleaded with to finish
your dinner tray, you say:

I am contemplating the virtues
of the mind vs. the sins of the flesh.

You believed, to feed yourself
fed all Evil in the world.

As war news blossomed on TV,
you became thinner, then cadaverous.

A doctor’s son, you had been stuffed
full of promise, Catholic school and Latin verbs.

Lamb of God—you take away
the sins of the world, have mercy.

Soon your crisp, plaid shirts and khaki
pants hung and billowed, sails on the mast,

and your speech came like purple loosestrife
along the expressway, unexpected bursts of color

shuddering from the sheer force
of what passes by.

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Susannah W. Simpson’s work has been published in The Homestead Review, North American Review, Potomac, The Wisconsin Review, South Carolina Review, POET, Nimrod International, Poet Lore, Salamander, Sequestrum, SWWIM, Xavier Review among others. Her poem “Lily” was anthologized in Full Moon and Foxglove by Three Drops Press, UK, and her book Geography of Love & Exile was published by Cervena Barva Press (2016). Susannah holds an MFA from Bennington and a PhD from SUNY/Binghamton. She is the founder and co-director of the Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches Reading Series and an Associate Editor for the South Florida Poetry Journal.