Gaslighting van Gogh, by Sterling Warner

Van Gogh Vortex, photography by Cathy Warner (USA) contemporary

Gaslighting van Gogh  

Vincent van Gogh aboard a spaceship of WOW 
skirts the high heavens every Starry Night;
between obsessing and pining, heavy eyes blink
as his irises flash like twinkling starshine, 
deafly listening… appreciating…celestial sounds  
of angel choirs that resonate like crystal verrillons--
ghost harps plucked across the solar system—ringing, singing, 
vibrating behind quasars, emerging from shimmering 
blankets of light; thrust into the stratosphere, 
notes ricochet off comets, manipulate astral echoes 
throughout the Milky Way, peal past nebulae nurseries,
mix sonic booms with extraterrestrial arias;  

piercing zodiacal clouds the shape of severed earlobes,
cosmic noise creates electromatic waves…bouncing…  
sending…receiving data via deep space antennas
silenced by black holes, consumed like Potato Eaters
foraging for a future in universe that measures awe
like impressionist artists who elevate mundane subject matter
with palette boards, paint knives, and horsehair applicators
as dynamic as van Gogh’s Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds
where shooting stars and blazing meteors hover
over pointillism earthscapes as bold as unblended colours
and messy brushstrokes that accentuate light, plunge 
beyond twilight zones, then burst like galactic Sunflowers.

Sterling Warner

An award-winning author, poet, and former Evergreen Valley College English Professor, Sterling Warner’s works have appeared many international literary magazines, journals, and anthologies including Anti-Heroin Chic, Sparks of Calliope, The Ekphrastic Review, and Danse Macabre,. Warner’s collections of poetry and prose include Rags and Feathers, Without Wheels, ShadowCat, Edges, Memento Mori: A Chapbook Redux, Serpent’s Tooth, Flytraps, and Cracks of Light: Pandemic Poems 2019-2022, and Halcyon Days: Collected Fibonacci (2023)—as well as Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories. Currently, Warner is writes, hosts/participates in “virtual” open mics, turns wood, and enjoys boating and fishing in Washington.

Sunflowers, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1888