Museum of Detroit Industry, North Wall Mural, by Flavian Mark Lupinetti

Museum of Detroit Industry, North Wall Mural by Diego Rivera (Mexico) 1932-33

Museum of Detroit Industry, North Wall Mural 
 
Jesucristo, I tempered my message 
yet critics call the murals of Diego Rivera subversive?  
If you take umbrage at seeing the 
white and the colored working together,   
take a closer look at the colored fellow  
in blue overalls.  See him pushing 
the cart full of engine blocks--eight cylinder engine blocks! 
For engines of unfathomable power.   
Does he look familiar to you? 
If you guessed Jack Johnson,  
heavyweight champion of the world,  
you win a free piston ring. 
I came thisclose to painting Jack brandishing his big fist. 
 
Frida kept saying, Do it.  Do it, Diego. 
 
But no, I exercised restraint.   
I threw in a young Jesus despite my atheism,  
but still the priests condemn me as heretic.   
Do they object to my fusion,  
the image of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue  
in the stamping machine? 
Coatlicue made the moon and the stars,  
was the mother to the god of the sun, but 
Padres, I do not advocate a human sacrifice  
to Coatlicue.  I do not even suggest  
that we roast a goat to honor her, I merely 
want to demonstrate the unity of America and Mexico,  
the oneness of technology and art. 
Do you see the man with the spectacles and 
the porkpie hat?  In my sketches I gave him 
a much larger nose, knowing it would  
offend those anti-Semite Fords. 
 
Frida kept saying, Do it.  Do it, Diego. 
 
Granted, I may have exercised self-interest 
in--well, let’s call it moderating--my composition.   
I couldn’t afford to lose this commission.   
But those critics have no idea  
how I hammered off the rough spurs of my world view,  
and filed down the edges of my beliefs 
to assure the smooth running of this engine of a mural.   
If I had my way I would have painted  
a team of workers in a dark corner of the shop floor 
building a guillotine for Henry Ford. 
 
Frida kept telling me, Do it. Do it, Diego.   
 
Do it.

Flavian Mark Lupinetti, a poet, fiction writer, and cardiac surgeon, received his MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.  His poems have appeared in Briar Cliff Review, december, and Sheila-Na-Gig.  Mark lives in New Mexico where he hikes with his dogs and watches too much pro football on television.
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