MONA LISA

Standing with his palette before her,
Da Vinci blended his darkest hues;
layered grays of rain-soaked slate,
olive aged in oaken casks,
sepia tones of tilled earth,
the ochre of bedlam,
bleak chaff of defeat.

He laid down his brushes to study her face,
how life’s light shone through
the destroyed landscape behind,
dipped brush to paint to curve
a burnished road below her shoulder,
ribbon a silt … Read the rest