This poem was inspired by the 1889 oil painting by Van Gogh

Ripples of night hovered over the barren mountains.
A drifting wind
Echoed like a siren in the distance
As the overcast in the foreground ascended to meet
The dreary sky.
A flaming tree reached for the stars
Filling the air
With halos of smoke
For a new generation of saints
And broken angels in yellow raincoats.
The glow of scattered windows
Will soon die down
As the starry night sweeps over the village
With terror in the time
Like sandcastles in the tide.
And we will accept our losses
In a vision of crumbling Jerichos
As the stars spread like cancers
Against the falling sky.
I would not turn back, yet
I was approaching the very destination
I had set out to escape.
And if there was any permanence in this world
I would soon know
That we have served our time together
And you would fade off into the background
Like the solitary steeple
That would always welcome me
When I returned.
But the road is long
And my dreams are weary and awaiting replacement.
And when the fog lifts
My vision will be clear to look ahead
And you will no longer be a part of my life
But a road on which
I have traveled many times
with the guiding glow of starry nights.

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