Boca Baciata Poem by gershon hepner

Boca baciata, a mouth that has been kissed,
does not lose freshness, and when kissed again
becomes refreshed like flowers in a mist
that wells like ink inspired by a pen,
but till it feels the moisture of a tongue
it languishes like the paintings at the Getty
and Boston's Fine Museum, where they hung
Boca Baciata, Gabriel Rossetti.

Inspired by an 1859 painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 'Boca Baciata, ') which I saw at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It is a portrait of a lovely girl called Fanny Cornforth. She sits pensively at a window demonstrating her very white skin and outstanding ruby lips. The reverse of the painting has the following lines from Boccaccio: “Boca baciata non perde verdura, anzi rinova come la luna.”


11/25/08