by rendering such well-known display
of pagan piety to newly Christianized
Rome after centuries of dark legends,
Michelangelo reintroduced to the public
a symbol of the lost Golden Age;
ushering in the Renaissance, the Romans
themselves only legend; the School of Athens
yet to be discovered, what u & I might
call 20/20 vision these people looked at
as avant-garde; imagine going through
the Middle Ages needing glasses; u'd have
to go to a witch & risk getting burned
at the stake; that was only four hundred
years ago & people were getting lynched
in America not even one hundred years ago;
Jews getting gassed last century leading
to the nuclear bomb: ****, u'd be happily
****-eyed if the witch gave u a tumble
in exchange for some food she'd cook &
u'd share w/ her in her forest hut; wild Indians
& naked wild - Indian - white - African
women gamboling through the brush - [-]
so like our Golden Age, so like the old satyrs
& centaurs hunting Griffins & unicorns,
watched by staring-eyed nymphs & sylphs,
fairies rustling the trees mating w/ the birds
& squirrels & bugs; crickets groaning, ladybugs
preening & mantis' praying to the horned mage