After the Renaissance
by Stuart Sheppard
We have lost the ability to see what the ancients saw,
as we no longer look at the world in candlelight.
Things are seen too clearly now,
the way we have washed the dirty gaze of Michelangelo
from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
When God holds out his hand to us
we like to count the fingers,
instead of leaning forward into the warmth of his palm,
like a cat seeking the heat of our flesh at night,
remembering its birth in darkness.
Stuart Sheppard is an award-winning poet, essayist, critic, and author of the novel, "Spindrift". Recent poetry publications include Atlanta Review, The Bitter Oleander, U.S. 1 Worksheets, and Pittsburgh Poetry Review. His work has been selected as one of the winning entries in the 2023 Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards, and was nominated for the Best New Poets 2022 Anthology. Stuart is a graduate of Kenyon College, and is currently the arts critic for Pittsburgh Quarterly.
