ART IN AMERICA Poem by Maw Shein Win

a smear of color and then as a girl in motion

the discomfort induced by this cross-wired
carnal narcissism suggests a sort of discourse on
the increasing denaturalization of nature and

the mechanization of creativity
which mines the
organic geometry of genetic and cellular forms
to create compositions
that attempt to fit the details of her own
life
into economically derived systems

obscured by a thick dollop of lustrous
pale-pink oil paint
cryptic narratives

map out the descent
from rural grace into suburban angst

an obsessive quest for order

notice the vicissitudes
of personal existence
travel endlessly in search
of the sublime
realize the artifice
of your constructions