Sonnet for Mia

When I first heard Mia Zapata rhyme,
The fist that clenched my soul began to shake
This sleeper, startled, suddenly awake;
A drumbeat dancing up and down my spine.
Like Janis, twenty years out of her time:
Some spirit cast in fire, a tongue to break
Your heart in two, then mend it new, to make
Mad love to thousands on the borderline.
But now I hear Mia Zapata weep–
For there are times when we are all afraid–
Seattle stalks her while her lovers sleep,
Seattle breaks her beauty with a blade;
A ballad of divine profanity,
She sings a soft unfinished symphony…