​Rothko No. 5 / No. 22, by Steen W. Rasmussen

Untitled (No. 5 / No. 22), by Mark Rothko (USA, b. Latvia) 1949-1950

​Rothko No. 5 / No. 22
 
“Close your eyes 
and you'll see”
 
The heat-haze 
Off the red-hot highway 
That grows across this 
Painted desert 
Like a blood-soaked bed of
Leafless roses 
In a sea of light that 
Shimmers 
And a box of sand that
Swelters
“Yes, I see, I said”
Combustible pools of
Oil and turpentine 
Chasing 
Sunburnt turf
 
“I sense your anger, 
but you are not mad”
 
No one could destroy such
Magnificence
No one, not even he, wields 
Such powers
Under layer upon painstaking layer
An ocean roils 
Obscured
By gleaming gold and sand
“A-wash this desert,” I cry
“Oh, please wash it clean!”
And above the horizon
A gate opens
With a single stroke
 
"Mine eyes have seen" 
"Still gazing inward," he replies
 
When the desert floods
Is it providential precipitation
Or human tears and blood
The year was 1950 
We’re still counting and
Watching the gate
A madman’s mushroom cloud
And when the shockwave crosses
The highway centerline
Razing everything in its path
“Promise me I'll be gone
I have no heir, no next of kin
You cannot hurt me then”
 
Steen W. Rasmussen
 
Steen W. Rasmussen is a native of Denmark and lives in New York City. His interest in writing is rooted in many years of songwriting. His poems have been published by Sparks of Calliope, Lothlorien, Dadakuku, and Voices of Poetry.