Girl with Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer Poem by William Simone Di Piero

He put the spirit essence
the light pip not only
in each eye's albumen
concentrate of starlight
but must have been taught
how to do that by first
finding it in the pearl
he posed then corrected
in dusty studio light
that pounced on the window
behind which sits the cheeky girl
pear- and apple-blossom cheeks
a fake description naturally
of their plain fleshiness
drably golden and her lips
from Haight Street's darlings
nose studs jacket studs
girls with that kind of eye
one by the atm machine
casual juicy and so fair
a Netherlandish type
panhandling strangers
pomegranate seed ball
bearings agleam in her nose
pearls not sea-harvested
but imagined seen put there
by a certain need and fancy
because love says it's so
picture that picture this.