Poem of the Week: “For Piero Di Cosimo” by David Wheatley

In his poem “For Piero di Cosimo,” David Wheatley addresses the Italian Renaissance painter in his satirical depiction of the societal pull toward beastly self-destruction. In addressing di Cosimo himself, quoting Roman author Vitruvius, and referencing other notable Italian painter George Vasari, Wheatley reflects on how humans may utilize art and language to propel their own ruination.

Piero di Cosimo: Prometheus Fashioning the First Man, circa 1510–1515

For Piero di Cosimo

Canvas is expensive and one who wastes
canvas on paintings not of the Bishop
of Bobo or the Countess of Caca
is an irresponsible person and you
are that person, abominating
the coughing of men and the chanting
of friars and making fifty boiled eggs
at a time. Vitruvius is telling you
how language was born: when the trees
caught fire, the men of old found
how pleasant the warmth was,
and trying to speak of this gave forth
sounds with differing intensity,
making customary by daily use
these random syllables. ‘More beast
than man’, said Vasari: pyrophobe
who would set Eden ablaze and send
these beasts stampeding towards us,
lions, bears and aurochs punished
for not wanting rid, they too, of heaven
on earth. The forest is a furnace
but in the middle distance a goat
and deer with human faces pause
and ask themselves what to do: what
bodies, whose faces to wear,
they wonder, nature wonders,
flush with the wisdom of utter defeat
as a peasant of genius spells
‘f–i–r–e, fire’ for the first
time and the whole world burns down.

–David Wheatley, from The President of Planet Earth (2017)