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Van Gogh Hopes in Arles

V.C. Myers

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               “Hope is in the stars” -Vincent Van Gogh

In his virgin canvas, Van Gogh saw
nocturnes, the many vistas of Arles,
his Bouches-du-Rhône market, a
delirious delicatessen tasted only
from a distance, far away from the
bustling Café Terrace crowd—his
dream of a coffeehouse artist colony
dashed by his self-imposed isolation
on the corner of the Place du Forum.
Non compos mentis, still, he sought
communion with the cosmic ceiling
of Camargue commune, eliciting
colors of the night sky as seen by
his feverish eyes—a prelude to the
spectacular starry night shimmering
through iron-barred glass in his room
at Saint-Rémy asylum. Ursa Major
stars dancing with gas lighting
over the Rhône, aquamarine melting
into russet gold, descending into
bronze above the bodies of lovers
ignorant of the voyeur standing on
the quay, capturing their forms with
his paint brush, before packing up
his easel and returning to his lonely
bed beside the lonely yellow chair
in the yellow house—his eyes full
of stars and both his ears still intact.

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V.C. Myers is an Appalachian poet, the author of Give the Bard a Tetanus Shot (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2019), a Contributing Editor of Barren Magazine, and Social Media Manager of Animal Heart Press. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and featured in exhibits and journals worldwide, including Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, The Minnesota Review, and Tar River Poetry. Her website is vcmyers.com, and you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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