Mona Lisa Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

The studio
The set perfect
Some rays of light
Coming through the panes
Of glazed window panels
The white crisp window aisle
The wooden floor
A table and colors
A palette
The beloved is the model
The outline is drawn
An immense energy is required
A long sitting
The artist
Wants to get
The complexity of nature
Of the model
And the inner conflict
The wine of nature
Sipping
Gulping it deep
Hours and hours are passed
The artist gets very close
To that
Complexity
Touches it but floats back
The model is now
In deep emotional tension
What the artist wants to capture
And what he is searching
Palette in hand
Beads of sweat on his forehead
Sighing deep
Eyes turned red shot
A sudden brief movement of the model
Loses her concentration
As if freed from the possession
Of an evil spirit
Smile plays on her red lips
And shine in her eyes
The passion of love for the artist
Who wants her
To be eternal
Peace and her hands slip over one another
In an expression of
Indifference
And contentment
The artist captures the moment
And infused with this sense of freedom
The free spirit enters him
The free spirit in its search for that centre
Of freedom
Transforms itself
Into hands and fingers
The palette and the brush
The model and the artist in unison
The free spirit
In a frenzy of emotion
And not finding the center
Takes out its own brush
But that is not a brush
It is a blade
And a convulsive dance
Tears apart every thing
Inside the artist
The model cries out
The artist
In convulsive fits
Gives final touches to the portrait
And after a long pause
When the artist
And the beloved have separated
From the embrace
Look with amazememet
At the portrait
And in deep reverence
To the love
And free spirit