Vincent
Poem based on Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, 1887
focus on the eyes
they look fearfully askance
a mask of pain
a trapped animal looking for a way out
a yellow hat over auburn hair and deep depression
he returns to his room
from the bar where he drinks absinthe
and falls in love with yellow
nibbling paint chips
and sees the halos
around the stars at night
He shaves
the ragged edges of his rusty beard
and hears a voice commanding him
to kill Gauguin
he maims himself instead.
“I did not kill myself,
I still had canvasses to paint
It is not the language of art
but the language of nature
which one should listen to.”
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