by Terri McCord
………………………………..How this precious pigment wound up in the mouth of an
………………………………..11th century German woman was more of a mystery.
………………………………..National Geographic, January 2019—Andrew Curry
Her teeth were clad in lapis
…………like an architectural palace,
pigment ground pure and ultramarine
worth more than gold,
infinitesimal halted flow of intense blue
…………not to be confused
…………with sapphire,
inclusions of golden pyrite flecks
encased in 1,000 year-old tartar.
This build-up of azure
was prime and holy
…………like an inked sky
that could speak
or the sweetest spot in the sea
many leagues under
or the rich hue of bright robin’s egg blue
in the Virgin Mary’s mantle
shown in so many paintings.
This scribe or painter,
now known as B78, …….named for her grave,
…………of the illumined
worked what was labeled a monk’s job.
Imagine …………she did not repeatedly kiss
the medieval manuscript (popular years later)
or ingest
the lapis lazuli powder as medicine
but see her …….millennia later
…………how she used the highest level of skills
…………how she used her lips to shape
the brush into the finest point.