Field Work, by Rhett Watts

Woman Spinning (After Millet), by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands). 1889.

Field Work

In the winter of '89, Vincent paints 
         from black and white photos of Millet's series--
peasants farming. He writes brother Theo he is
         ...not so much copying as translating them. 
Finger working impasto like the yarns 
         he braids nights, twisting complimentary 
shades together for the effects. 
         Mornings he calls out like some exotic bird, 
“Blu! Orange!” while banging harmonies 
         on the pianola until his music teacher refuses
lessons to the man who hears colours.

Van Gogh keys Millet's sepias to bright hues. 
         Bends the woman in blue, her neck, breasts 
pointing toward earth as she gathers grain.
         When the pot-bellied stove goes cold,
he imagines himself warm in fields 
         with workers--the core of his art. 
Dabs the brim of a squash-coloured hat, 
         chambray shirt of the man who is both sower 
and reaper, digging for something in the sun.

At noon a cup of weak tea for the artist,
         and the couple rests gathered into another canvas.
Shadowed by the hayrick, their mounded bodies
         give off heat like cattle. His face eclipsed
by his hat, her kerchiefed head nested in her arms.
         They spoon into each other like the steel blades
of the sickles beside them. Man and woman
         saints like him, workers in the heartland.

Vincent surveys the canvases, knows 
         he will not marry. He thinks of Theo and 
his sister-in-law, of their baby due any day. 
         Thinks of his other brother, the first Vincent, 
who died a year to the day before his own birth.
         Their shared name carved into his boyhood
sharp as the reminder awaiting each time 
         he swung out the kitchen past the stone marker

of the first Vincent planted in the family plot. 
         He was a replacement child.
Day's last light and Vincent finishes the face
         of the woman with a pat of mauve while she 
steadies her toddler. He sets the man 
        on one knee to celebrate their child's first steps--
shovel dropped, arms flung wide in welcome.
         Tethered as gate to fence, beans to post,
dug in like his easel planted in the Provence soil,
          together they work the cabbages.

Rhett Watts
​
Rhett Watts was born in Beirut, Lebanon and has lived in New York, San Francisco, Connecticut and currently lives in Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared in Spoon River Poetry Review, Sow's Ear Poetry Review, The Worcester Review, Connecticut River Review, Yankee Magazine, Ekphrasis, and other journals. Recent work is online in poetrymagazine.com and Sojourners Magazine. Her award winning chapbook is No Innocent Eye (Seven Kitchens Press) and her book of poems is Willing Suspension (Antrim House Books). One of her poems was included in book The Best Spiritual Writing 2000. Rhett currently facilitates writing workshops in CT and MA.

Two Peasants Digging, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands). 1889.