Our Very Own Van Gogh by Tebo Ndlovu

Our Very Own Van Gogh by Tebo Ndlovu

With complete abandon,

He loved to talk about

His latest 'masterpiece'

Raising high his hopes for

That one that will catch the king's eye.

But the king

- his Majesty's eyes stayed occupied

When the young lad

Came knocking at the palace gate

And so would begin the journey back home

On which was the carpenter's son:

Swinging the window agape

Joked "Come back tomorrow!"

And the merchant's daughter

Giggling due to the strange imagery

The product of the artist's brush strokes.

It made him angry and happy

When they turned up their noses

Because he felt in pictures

And would set to work

Painting his feelings

Laying out a maybe-magnum opus.

One night the snow

Fell too hard

Our 'van Gogh' journeying

From the carpenter's cottage.

They found him the next morning;

The chill of the blizzard

Had reached into his bones

And history states

He dropped to the white dirt

Frozen solid, face-down

We gathered

All through that week

Weeping, celebrating, reflecting

He perished trying

Our van Gogh

Never did shred a painting

Hurl a tantrum

Or shorten his own life.

The merchant's wife

Purchased the first painting

Only within four fortnights

The queen another

The village beauty yet another

And the carpenter's son?

His father carved an easel

Ornate and new under the sun

In honor of our fallen hero

We bestowed upon him a high honor:

Inscribed 'our van Gogh'

On the gray tombstone

Bid farewell

To our definition of the fairer version

Of the real supernova.

Poem is a Copyright © 2013 of  Tebogo Ndlovu. Tebogo  is a global citizen hailing from Zimbabwe and a never ending source of inspiration to me, and has scaled heights in the field of writing and has won accolades for her outstanding strength of character. She is currently based in Georgia, Atlanta in the United States of America making strides in her studies in Engineering.