Gabriella Brand

Metphrastics is an unusual publication that takes paintings exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and asks writers to work ekphrastically from them.
I’m delighted that my poem “Whiff” is among the work chosen to represent some aspect of Odilon Redon’s “Pandora”. This painting was released on the eve of World War I.

Redon depicts the mythological figure naked, surrounded by flowers. I kept thinking about the story of Pandora’s box and the evils unleashed upon the world. My mind went to the current war with Iran….but it’s too close and I can’t write about it. Then I started to see parallels with Viet Nam, and the photo of the MyLai massacre came to mind.

Read “Whiff” here or listen to it being read: https://metphrastics.com

Or read it below:

The innocence of Indochine.
Who would not have fallen for her?
Her bougainvillea beckoned,
her lemon grass charmed the palate.
When the French arrived at her doorstep,
their noses twitched 
at the smell of money and rubber,
everything cost so little until it cost too much.
After Dien Bien Phu,
the colonists left, but they left the gate open.

So many things falling then, for decades,
the dominos of power, 
American troops
tumbling over woven baskets, homesteads,
rice paddies, lotus and orchid, 
a naked girl, running, shrieking,
her flesh shriveled,
pieces of skin like petals
floating to the ground.
The once sweet air filled with scorch. 
When the winds came up again, 
the gate swung on its hinges
and could never really close.