That Girl With A Pearl Earring Poem by RIC BASTASA

i've taken a peek
and i know it is expensive.

how did it go that way?
perhaps because of the stories.

we are told she has an earring
of pearl, but at a close look,
as the story goes, and which i have
taken a real peek, is that
she has none, just a smudge of paint
from her maker,

is she going to the market?
is she leaving her husband and the house?
is she coming home after all?
is she pregnant with an unwanted baby?
is it her husband's?
questions are propping

our thoughts are complicated.
we make her complicated, and
a few are getting rich and more
will be getting richer by her
because of these stories.

how about the painter? oh well,
he died in his infamy. Poor as a rat.