Wheat Field with Crows

Vincent van Gogh shot himself in a field very much like the one in his final painting. He was able to make his way back to where he was staying. He died in bed a few days later. His last known words were "the sadness will last forever".

 

Between the haunted blue sky and tall golden wheat

crows flock to the field

where the soil swallowed the blood of a man

whose life’s work had brought about his end

---the sadness will last forever.

 

The bullet missed his sobbing heart,

and took it's time to dry the tears.

Two more unbearable days were endured

before death's peace would alight like a dove

---the sadness will last forever.

 

The black birds' oil had soaked in through his eyes;

their flapping had darkened his mind.

Three paths lay ahead but he'd walked them before

so he stumbled back to bed and succumbed

---the sadness will last forever.

 

The abstract dissolves the concrete

and reason is undulant and cruel.

Paint replaces what we knew as real

and the past lives on in pastels.

---the sadness will last forever.

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

The last stanza really makes this piece....
"The abstract dissolves the concrete

and reason is undulant and cruel.

Paint replaces what we knew as real

and the past lives on in pastels"

Powerful, and elegant.
Well done.