Thursday, April 9, 2020

Vitruvian Man (da Vinci), Sonnet #506























Even da Vinci needed a compass —
No one draws a perfect circle freehand.
(You can see the pinhole at the navel.)
He had to be careful not to press
Too hard before the line came to an end.
A ruler kept the square true and stable.
Much harder was the sketching of the man.
(Or is it someone who is his own twin?)
In length, are all four of his arms the same,
Or are the upper two slightly longer
To reach the curvature with his fingers?
When I first saw this imagined figure,
I knew I’d seen him many times before,
Past recall, him seeing me from afar.

My book of the first 200 of these sonnets is now available for purchase. Click here:
My Human Disguise.