Amsterdam

Rubbing his hand over scrubby red beard

Not like the others in dress or manner

A planet not his own, a time beyond his understanding

People bubbling around him were looking at his paintings

More people than he had seen together in any building

His eyes betrayed a mix of sadness and shock

He longed for the comfort of his pipe and some green fairy

The women wore pants of many colors and styles

The shape of their bodies seemed exposed and prominent

The men wore shirts of shortened sleeves and no neck wear

He retreated to a group near the Potato Eaters

Wanting to disappear from the madness surrounding him

Nearby was a painting by dear Gauguin

If only he were here, a friend never so needed as now

His voice saying, “I shut my eyes so that I could see.”

And now seeing was nothing more than horror

Why was God putting me here? he thought

This future of shiny floors and glass walls

Some children with drawing pads spread out on the floor

A pleasant-looking woman with kind eyes asked them

To think about what the painter might have been thinking about

Obedient, obliging young ones eager to know why

There was such concern for people in the fields

From a time when food didn’t come wrapped in plastic

He looked at a colored box of colored pencils 

Sitting on the floor near one of the young boys

The boy, holding onto a red pencil had begun to draw

Then the man with the beard began to wonder about these 

Children and whether they had ever known cold or hunger

Whether they had had to work until the sun had left the sky

He felt an odd bit of pride come over him

How simple he was in comparison to these beings 

His rough clothes, unkempt hair and smell of tobacco 

Did they know that he had left himself mixed in the paints

A bit of his soul here, some of his mind, and his eyes...

Always his eyes, the gift of sight, of longing for the image

Gathered as they were to see his paintings, not one

Noticed him standing there, a man not worth knowing...

Lacking possessions, or importance 

Quietly he gathered up the contents of a waste bin

And slipped out a side door 

Geen Toegang - No Entry