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Sunday


in an art book
I came across
two paintings by Van Gogh
they hadn’t been mounted on banknotes
these two celebrated works
were unremarkable paintings
one was called Gaugin’s Chair
the other
Van Gogh’s Chair
although I didn’t go so far
as to buy the book
I was
so moved by what I saw
that I was like
“a chariot driven south
to get north”
and I caught the wrong trolley bus
home




© Translation: 2004, Simon Patton