Slow Down, Mona Lisa

Posted by David Warner | Filed under Poetry, Print

I knew her like God knows the horizon
Like she was a watch I built
from a jazz flutes last song,
a baby’s first words,
and a blind painters masterpiece
effortlessly brave and spontaneously graceful
but still cute and magnetic
with the unparalleled passion of someone
whose life’s work they could never enjoy

like I made her tick
and I made her tock
but I could tell that everytime her hands moved
we were closer to being over
so I held them still
so time wouldn’t pass for us just one night longer

I cherished her meticulously
counted her heartbeats
as she pulled my ear closer to her soul
I could feel each individual hair stand up
in the half a square inch region of my wrist her finger circled

I was hooked
like a kid with a puzzle he doesn’t know is missing pieces
Curious and fascinated and terrified and vulnerable and furious
all jammed in one second every second
til the minutes mount and all that’s left is heart break
’cause his mini Mona Lisa doesn’t have a smile anymore
he lost it throwing a tantrum
’cause he couldn’t get her eyes to glisten
the deep brown they were supposed to

Mona Lisa won’t smile for him
like she won’t hold my hand
she just wants to move
I just want one more chance the stop time with her
she can spend it with someone else
I just wanna love her like tomorrow is on vacation til next week

slow down, Mona Lisa
let’s live between the seconds
cause minutes turn to hours
and hours into lightyears of space
from which I can only see you as you once were
be my sun just a lil while longer
not some distant star that waves
on the off chance there’s a clear night in NY

you’re more than just a passing measure of my growth
to be forgotten
then remembered just to orient my memories
let me part your hands and slip my fingers in between
so we can feel the earth stand still beneath our feet again

let me lay you down
so the sandy soul inside your hourglass
sits still
I know they say you won’t wait for me
that I’d just be wasting you
that I can’t stop you or bring you back
but what they say has never moved me

only you can

and without you I’m stuck in a broken clock
I tick tick tick tick tick tick TOCK
in the same spot for however long it’s been since you left
so slow down, Mona Lisa
let’s ignite eternity and watch the flame burn forever
let me piece your smile back together second by second
hold it together with what glues hope to happiness
and rewrite the night with you
slow down so I can love you

Permalink | Other posts by David Warner| October 26th, 2009

2 Responses to “Slow Down, Mona Lisa”

  1. Brandi Says:
    October 28th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    “…be my sun just a lil while longer
    not some distant star that waves
    on the off chance there’s a clear night in NY

    …let me lay you down
    so the sandy soul inside your hourglass
    sits still
    I know they say you won’t wait for me
    that I’d just be wasting you
    that I can’t stop you or bring you back
    but what they say has never moved me

    only you can”

    that sums it up. does it for me, definitely.

    MUCH peace on that.

  2. Melissa Pavri Says:
    October 28th, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    be my sun just a lil while longer
    not some distant star that waves
    on the off chance there’s a clear night in NY

    mmm sooo OD

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