Wheat Field With Rising Sun, Vincent van Gogh, 1889
Was
this
the field you chose
on countless solo walks
through the countryside
to end your torturous life
Was yours
a conscious decision
to take up pistol that day
leave behind blue skies, starry nights
escape the sadness and loneliness
of your world
Or was it
borne from a momentary lapse
an inability that day
to see beyond the wheat fields
visualize a future bright with promise
tragically, sadly ~ we will never know
On
27 July 1890, Vincent took his last walk out into the wheat fields
around Auvers in France. There, he shot himself in the chest. He died
two days later. In his brother’s words, his final resting place is
‘… a sunny spot amid the wheat fields’.