In Love With Mona Lisa, by Greg Lobas

Mona Lisa. by Leonardo da Vinci (Italy). 1503.

In Love With Mona Lisa

Sssshhhh.  
Don’t speak.  
Don’t say a word.
Words are not always best.
They are suited for fools 
like me, but they are never true,
never hit their mark. 
They are the things we hide behind,
veils, shields, ramparts, envoys we send 
beyond the castle walls to negotiate terms, 
and so they are already a kind of surrender.
But you must never surrender.
Yours is the truth of silence.  
Your simple, ample presence 

like that of a cloudless sky.
In it I see every love,
everything I know is true, 
every assurance, 
every satisfaction.
In the summer sun
I am your shadow.
When you drink,
I am quenched.
When you eat,
I am nourished.
And when you smile?
When you smile
I know I am alive.

Greg Lobas

Greg Lobas is a freelance writer/poet/retired firefighter-paramedic living in the foothills of western North Carolina.  He has written for a variety of national outdoor magazines,  His poetry has appeared in Gray's Sporting Journal, The Broad River Review, The Petigru Review.  He has won the Marjorie E. Peale prize and the Pan Prize from the Poetry Society of South Carolina, and the Carrie McCray Award from the South Carolina Writer's Association.  He performs his poetry on stage at the Tryon Fine Arts Center in North Carolina, and teaches a poetry class and workshop at Isothermal Community College.