The reasons offered
for relocating the statue of David
from outdoors into shelter
include weathering and pigeon shit.
His accessibility to vandals.
All anyone required
while he was stationed (for 350 years)
in the Piazza della Signoria
was a pair of folding stepladders, a hammer
and a chisel, and that would have been the last
we ever saw of his 16th century genitals.
The history of art would
(of necessity) been abbreviated, obviously
but people would have managed.
Worse has happened. Trust me.
Both my grandfathers had cancer.
It’s worth remembering, for the record
how the Bible David, the one who slew
Goliath, purchased his first wife
from her father, with a basket full
of foreskins. Ultimately, she despised him.
.
Steve Taylor
.