Stewing

Onions sliced
potatoes diced
into the caldron of my mind.

Bitter resentment knowing
my time is your time:
Cooking time.
cleaning time.

Who are the great artists, writers?
Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Picasso, Shakespeare, Lao Zu.
Did they cook, clean for others?

Then there were the Eliots:  T.S. and George.
and the Emilys:  Dickinson and Bronte.

Slowly simmering woman’s anger, boiled madness released into the air.
Onions bring tears to the eyes, a reaction to the acid of reality,
softened to sweetness with the warmth of a child’s hug.

Potatoes with covered eyes peeled, raw and crunchy, become hearty
morsels with heat of writing;

slowly cooking, mixing the flavors into a palatable stew.

—Portia Choi

Portia Choi devotes her time to promoting poetry by hosting the monthly First Friday Open Mic and publicizing events during National Poetry Month in April. She administers www.kernpoetry.com with stories and pictures of poets and poetry events. She published a chapbook of her poems Sungsook, Korean War Poems. She is published in a number of journals, including The Asian Pacific American Journal, A Sharp Piece of Awesome, and Levan Humanities Review. She is a long-time member of Writers of Kern.