Girl With A Pearl Earring By Johanes Vermeer Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

It was the glint in her eyes that first
attracted my attention. The maid was
doing my floor and I thought such eyes
couldn't belong to such being
unless she was supplementing

her income by attracting sleazy
customers. Emboldened,
I kept staring at her and to my surprise
she stared back with a steady gaze.
She opened her lips just ever so slightly

as if she was going to say something.
I waited in vain for over three and a half
centuries for her to descend from
the painting in the manner of Duchamp.
She was underage then and I didn't dare

make a move on her on account of my
own advanced chronological life phase.
My overripe wisdom would've been
an outright giveaway and I would've
been branded a rotten dirty old man.

Well, I thought and thought the matter
over and over and remember telling Jo,
pronounced Yo for you foreigners, to put
a glint on the pearl in such way as to
make it the focus of the portrait.

Yo balked at the suggestion but agreed
and complemented it with a barely
noticeable off-white collar on the tronie.
He capped her with an oriental royal blue
turban. Added a touch of wet to her lower

lip and I tell you this was no silicone job
nor costume jewelry.
Of course we didn't realize at the time how
famous that painting would become.
And voila, the rest is history!