After Leonardo

photo by Nathan 

of a painting by Louise 

after a painting by Leonardo

& a moth

Louise, last week at work a six-inch moth
Lit on the gray, block wall next to my bench.
It's northwoods not rainforest here; and so
I was surprised  –that this exotic thing
With wings of indigo, gold, brown, black, rose,
Was here at all and, further, here it chose
To light beside me on a warehouse wall–
Until I realized the palette of each wing
Matched hue for hue the nearby painting you had shaped
(Displaced here, too: on stark concrete, lush oils and cloth.)
I tried to catch it so that I could show
You what your art had drawn; but it escaped.
Today, I couldn't have imagined what I'd find:
The moth returned –and died– by beauty of its kind.