Da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine First day of Spring and All I want to do is march up and down the block proclaiming-- exactly what I’m not sure. Until I notice a teenage girl plopped on the grass by the neighbourhood ball field its bases gone. its linked chain entangled in leafless vines. She’s nuzzling I think her newborn babe—pure emblem of Spring. But no, it’s a ferret, and she’s gazing into the middle distance, one hand securing its neck. Nothing can convince me I’m not back in Krakow, Poland, the same Spring day--just stepping out of the museum where I could be DaVinci, having just tossed his brushes into the turps after the ferret nipped his hand and he snarled at its owner, the lady who had enough of his nonstop invective, who storms off with her pet, to sit and relax in the delicious Spring afternoon. Which is why I silently walk by. Leonard Kress Read another ekphrastic poem by Leonard Kress, here. Leonard Kress has published poetry and fiction in Missouri Review, Massachusetts Review, Iowa Review, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, etc. His recent collections are The Orpheus Complex and Walk Like Bo Diddley. Living in the Candy Store and Other Poems and his new verse translation of the Polish Romantic epic, Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz were both published in 2018. Craniotomy Sestinas appeared in 2020. He teaches philosophy and religion at Owens College in Ohio. www.leonardkress.com
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The Ekphrastic Review
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February 2025
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