Portrait of (Monna) Lisa Gherardini, 1503-1506, by Janée J. Baugher

The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci (Italy). 1503-1506.

Portrait of (Monna) Lisa Gherardini, 1503-1506   
  
Before it was stolen then found
four hundred content years of anonymity. 
 
Louvre security couldn’t control lawless camera flashes. 
So now the portrait’s hung behind light-shielding Plexiglas. 
 
We pose next to it (click) to prove our visit.
Take two minutes to get the right shot (click).
 
We won’t recall the sfumato (click), the hands
one atop the other, or the road that leads away.
 
We skip home with our prized shots, pictures
of a painting, but no memory of the painting. 

Janée J. Baugher
 
Baugher is the author of two ekphrastic poetry collections, The Body’s Physics (Tebot Bach, 2013) and Coördinates of Yes (Ahadada Books, 2010). Her nonfiction, fiction, and poetry have been published in The Writer’s Chronicle, Boulevard, NANO Fiction, Nimrod, and The Southern Review, among other places. Her essay “Art to Art: Ekphrastic Poetry” can be found at  https://boulevardmagazine.org/jjbaugher/