Van Gogh’s Crows
Vincent knew his Bible well
from Belgium with the miner men
He knew that Noah built his ark
From cypress, among other things,
And waited for the rain to come
The deluge washing over them
For 40 days they floated, then
Released a crow to look for land
The crow brought back
a message that
As far as she could fly she saw
an endless sea, no shores at all
no consolation; isolation,
desolation only
was the message of the crow and so
When forty of those crows arrive
They bear that message
Forty times
Above the wheat fields
of Auvers-sur-Oise