THE WEAVE:

Eris and Venus, walk into

the Van Gogh immersive

experience, arm in arm…

"What do you know
about Van Gogh, Eris?"
Venus asks.

Eris leans closer,
"Mostly what I read
in his letters.
What do you want
to be told?"

"What was he like?"

Eris begins...
"He was like me.  Born
with his Mercury, before
26 degrees Aries, close to where
I am now -A position

currently squaring Pluto,
where you are.  Elsie Wheeler
calls this degree,
"A man possessed, of more

gifts than he can hold."
As an expression of Mercury
Here, I say the natives speak
the Flaming Language.

Most of what I've read
was to his brother, Theo.
Expanding, in the safety
of his brother's arms, Vincent

became a lunatic artist
for the last 10 years
of his life.  Before that
he was a lunatic preacher,

a lunatic art dealer, etc, etc.
But surely he was alWays
a lunatic.  Vincent
and Theo died, close together.

One of syphilis,
the other simply suffering
from the side-effects 
of being a World- Walker.

He did not know moderation.
His contemporaries found him
to be gaudy.  He died,
mostly alone, from a
 
shrouded injury that 
may have been self
created, or maybe not.
He is not different

from the rest of us,
he just didn't hide.
At his funeral, people took 
his paintings, off the walls,

as payment, for such and such
a thing.  He hardly ever sold
anything, in his lifetime.
He was not understood."

"What do you think,
he'd think, of this?"
Venus asks, as she glows
within the exhibit.

"Maybe that it's a little
fucked up, that we're all
in a dark room, staring at
projected lights on cave walls,

rather than roaming the fields,
with easels on our backs,
noticing the grackles fly,
smelling the Air.

I do not know, how he'd feel.
Probably many things. Pride,
disappointment, grace, anguish?
But I feel like he'd use vocabulary

more embodied than that."

Venus blinks,
"Is there anything else,
he'd like to say?"

"There is Nothing
more truly artistic
than to Love people."

"Why that?" Venus asks

"It is Pain, Venus,"
Eris states, as she casts
her hand around, at the brightly 
colored walls, "There is

Pain Here. Vincent
just found his most
beautiful Way to say it,
and later,
 
we caught up to him.
In his day, he was labeled
a paint- waster.
And Now, we make gimmicks

of his Heart, and say,
'Hey, he's the one
who cut off his ear,
right?'"

"Dang, OKAY.  I knew
I should have brought Uranus."