At Eternity's Gate, by Denise Bundred

Van Gogh's Chair, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1888

​At Eternity’s Gate

In Arles Vincent named just such a chair a self-portrait,
although it was empty apart from his pipe and a fist
of tobacco in a twist of paper. Onions sprouted
from a box in the corner of the red flagged floor.

Now a man on the same deal and straw seat
presses knotted fists into eyes as blue
as the bombazine suit, pale and patched.
He is a specialist in grief. He knows the signs.

​Denise Bundred

Denise Bundred: "I was a consultant paediatric cardiologist and has an MA in Writing. I’m a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. My pamphlet, Litany of a Cardiologist, was published in 2020. I won the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine 2016, coming second in 2019. My poems have appeared Hippocrates Prize Winner Anthologies and the NHS Anthology These are the Hands.  I have poems in a number of British poetry magazines and online publications including Envoi, Under the Radar, The Poetry Shed, Prole Poetry and Prose, London Grip and Magma."

At Eternity's Gate, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1890