Poems

Pain

by Martin Higareda

Van Gogh likes pain
he said so himself
dazedly muttering like a crazed midwife
What?
Vermillion. More chartreuse. Ugh! Ugh! Pain!
Unrequited, yes, do you see!

Exactly, and did you know
Picasso longed for Napoleon
Would he offer him a cigarette, do you think?
Be my muse, be a slave, he would say
like me

And Dali dreamt of those lost Indians
that would gather within,
grimly, with some dark joy
glowing in his heart as the canvas loomed terrifying, horrible
like a few dark years of history,
glory

pain