[Mary Meriam]

I am a mountain tiger

I am Ginevra de’ Benci. I do not forgive
my father for burning the lines I wrote
so that only one line is left to live.
I am a mountain tiger. I wear a coat
painted by da Vinci. He took my juniper
and burnt it with my lilies and lines.
Would I ask forgiveness of Lucifer?
I am not the Icarus of ancient signs,
driven to fly and drowned in the lake.
I am a mountain tiger. I am here
to pounce and kill for poetry’s sake.
When I apologize, I am not sincere.


https://www.nga.gov/artworks/50724-g...-benci-obverse