Leonardo Da Vinci

Photograph by Cristie Durand

Leonardo Da Vinci

1452-1519

Leonardo kissed the boys
on his way to the market.
He bought bread and sour milk.
Cheese settled easy in his lips.
He paid them to dance and
never stop while he drew maps
of how not to return home.

It was 1488 and America
was an illusion except for
Icelandic fisherman dragging
nets off the coast of Atlantis.

Leonardo paid the boys
to test his balloon. He said
it came from a star that only
he understood. He said he
had taken passage just as any
infant in the crisp of a squeal

“When I create angels, I borrow
from the Bible of nothing known."