Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, by Dan MacIsaac

Lady with an Ermine, by Leonardo Da Vinci (Italy) 1491

Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine 

Il Moro’s mistress sits 
composed with an ermine, 

his emblem and her familiar,
pure beauty and pure beast.

The pale hunter boasts 
a pelage of chaste frost

more striking than
her sumptuous dress.

Has the animal, pressed
to her plush warmth,

been wholly tamed  
or might he claim her?

Her hand pauses, wavers,
lithe and supple as the weasel.

Dan MacIsaac

​Dan MacIsaac writes from Metchosin, BC in a house overlooking a salt water lagoon. His poetry has appeared in magazines such as Event, The Ekphrastic Review, Prism, and Canadian Literature. Brick Books published his collection of poetry, Cries from the Ark; and, in 2022, Alfred Gustav Press published his chapbook, Jazz Sessions.