Michelangelo’s David, And David’s Genitals Poem by Raj Arumugam

can you see the whole
of Michelangelo’s David
see the creation of it
see its beauty?




1

how awkward
David’s genitals,
the authorities decided,
and so covered it with
a garland of
copper leaves
twenty-eight counted



2

and still today people
cannot stand David’s genitals
for they look at it open-mouthed
and look away swiftly
shy and embarrassed
with guilt in their hearts
and dust in their eyes



3

but the holy of course
those holy ones
and prim and proper and so moral
all the holy
so blessed and destined to go to Heaven
and enter they will
without genitals surely



and the holy, holy
they speak of profanity
and of the unholy nude
and curse and swear and vow damnation
and if possible
they’d happily put explosives
particularly in David’s genitals
like they dynamited the Buddhas of Bamyan
for it’s all the same holy intolerance




can you see the whole
of Michelangelo’s David
see the creation of it
see its beauty?