Study of a Woman's Head, by Leonardo Da Vinci, by Maura High

Study of a Woman's Head, by Leonardo da Vinci (Italy) c. 1490

Study of a Woman's Head, by Leonardo Da Vinci
 
Details are long gone: the smell
of rabbit glue mixed with bone,
the scrape of pencil,
 
underdrawing
of workshop and kitchen,
of the quarter, of men’s hands and voices,
 
and the day, and the season.
She knew it all, it weighed on her
like work still to be done,
 
the floor that was swept and that needs
sweeping, this here,
that there, and back again,
 
and the ending even harder.
I could tuck that wisp of hair into place,
speak to her in her language,
 
Madonnina, angelo.

Maura High

Maura High was born and raised in Wales and now lives and works, as a freelance editor, in Carrboro, North Carolina. Her work has appeared in anthologies and journals, among them Tar River Poetry, New England Review, and The Southern Review. She has two small books, the chapbook The Garden of Persuasions (Jacar Press, 2013) and Stone, Water, Time (Lyric Kinard Publishing, 2019).