artist: leonardo da vinci - mona leo juxtaposer: david r. tribble (?)
MONA LISA IMAGINES
by Karla Huston
The
virgins on the rocks were never
unhappy,
yet you painted them twice.
At
least the twelve apostles could
gnaw meat off bones while they
lingered
or
leaned into a bit of gossip
or
fingered silver coins. Today
you
want my hands folded just this way.
Chiaroscuro,
you call it,
a
new way of seeing, but oh,
I
am tired, wait like an unanswered
prayer
or an angel condemned
to
kneel forever, while you study
the
slant of light and adjust shadows
with
a thumb. Today it’s your
hair
that
has me worried, flying out from
your
head, your beard a silver nest
for
insects and stray bits of food.
And
Leonardo, you have such nasty
habits:
belching after every meal,
farting
when you bend for a rag,
or
scratching your balls and peeing
from
the balcony into the lilies
below. Now you could use a bath
and
those nails clipped, but once
you
might have been handsome.
Maybe
then you’d have painted me
younger,
crowned with roses, my fingers
full
of gold rings. Why not ask
me
about
the scar on my arm or my crooked
little
finger? Will anyone
remember
the
smoky haze around my face,
the
subtle shift of light and dark,
see
how much it hurt to smile?
~
first published in Kalliope
