Galileo's Middle Finger

[A found poem.]

Removed by some enthusiastic admirers,
three fingers a vertebra and a tooth
taken from his body in 1737.

The middle finger, from his right hand,
was kept by an Italian marquis
passed on from generation to generation
in the same family.

The relics were inside an 18th century blown-glass vase,
in turn, inside a wooden case
topped with a wooden bust of Galileo.

Had Galileo not said that the Earth revolved around the sun,
he would have gone to his tomb with all his fingers and teeth.