Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Monday 27 June 2011

What happened at Arles ?














Who knows. It seems
after all that it was only
the lobe or the top of the ear
that was severed -
which sounds like an accident.
Maybe the unpleasant Gauguin
brandished a knife and got carried away
when both were drunk.
When both were drunk, maybe
the unpleasant Gauguin bet
the overwrought Vincent that he wouldn't
cut off his ear. Maybe they intended
to cut each other's hair when drunk,
and the unpleasant Gauguin
entirely by accident, or perhaps
out of spite for a much better painter
and much better person just snipped
the top off the ear of the man racked with guilt
and sorrow at living, the man not so easy
to live with - and driven. And perhaps it was the
unpleasant young Gauguin's idea
to have his tortured friend
make the famous delivery
just out of badness or devilment...
This may be calumny.

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