A Lightening of Storms
Viola Lee
“The heart too red to believe in an afterlife”
- Kim Myeong-sun (from Pomegranate, translated by Shyun Jeong Ahn)
Out of poems written by the where and when
Out of everything has become a fever again
Out of dark, light, need for the night
Out of hot, cold, can’t get it right
Out of bargaining for up and down rides
Out of poems and lions standing close to their pride
Out of pomegranates are what one craves
Out of the stomach of fire are the lines seeds pave
Out of poems being in love and eating ravenously
Out of poems where the streets run lawlessly
Out of poems looking up every once in a while
Out of thirsty for more, bones in a pile
Out of helicopters hover above this city
Out of dysregulated in division and six feet glory
Out of poems forgotten, but there are others to see
Out of listening for more and pointing to trees
Out of this body has become a house
Out of the remote, the private, the third rail, my blouse
Out of signs of buds bloom out in back
Out of control, a role, to enact
Out of boxes made of cardboard and more
Out of my body becoming a lightening of storms
Viola Lee graduated from NYU with an MFA in Poetry. Her book, Lightening after the Echo, was published by Another New Calligraphy. She won honorable mention in the Vincent Chin Memorial Prize for her chapbook, Another Word for Dialogue. She recently published poems in the Bellevue Literary Review and Literary Mama, and has poems forthcoming in Hong Kong Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and Crosswinds Poetry Journal. She is currently working on writing another manuscript of poems. She lives in Chicago with her husband, son, and daughter. She teaches at Near North Montessori School.