Poems from Secret Places
Leonardo’s Lunchbox
Inventor,
Painter,
Poet,
Philosopher.
The defining renaissance man.
I’m betting he was a
bologna and cheese sort of fellow.
No squishy formless egg salad
for the master geometrician.
He would be drawn inexorably
to the precisely circular
slice of uniform pink meat.
Add to this
one compellingly orthogonal
slice of yellow American,
its corners only just touching
the bologna’s circumference
(like the naked man in that famous sketch)
Then punctuate
this blessed symmetry
with a delicate abstract swirl
of bright yellow mustard-
perhaps the inspiration for
the Mona Lisa’s
gracefully curved finger.
To then hide such perfection
between slices of Wonder Bread
would doubtless have
disturbed the ...