Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Childhood Friends (4)

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe
Vincent Van Gogh

Put your vileness up to a mirror and weep.
Get that self-satisfaction flowing out of you.

Satan thought, I am better than Adam,
and that better than is still strongly in us.

Your streamwater may look clean,
but there is unstirred matter on the bottom.

Your guide can dig a side channel
that will drain that waste off.

Trust your wound to a teacher's surgery.
Flies collect on a wound. They cover it,
those flies of your self-protecting feelings,
your love for what you think is yours.

Let a teacher wave away the flies
and put a plaster on your wound.

Don't turn your head. Keep looking
at the bandaged place.

That is where the light enters you.
And don't believe for a moment
you are healing yourself.