Mendigo

Mendigo,
swimming through fresh water.

Friend or foe?
The king’s only daughter.

Beggar king, beggar fish,
beggar daughter,
swimming through fresh water.

Van Gogh's Ear

Van Gogh’s ear didn’t mean much to me
until today. I saw that maybe another man
had cut it off, his former friend Gauguin.
In these days I don’t ever think you’ll see

someone cut off someone else’s ear with a rapier.
To me, the thought of those two foe-ing friends
is quixotic. Couldn’t they have settled it with pens,
or brushes? Ink is nothing but blood on paper.