The Bedroom at Arles (1888), by Matthew M. Cariello

The Bedroom at Arles, by Vincent Van Gogh (Netherlands) 1888.

The Bedroom at Arles (1888)

the pain inside feels like sadness
I told Mrs. Hall & she sent me 
to the nurse Mrs. Jennings who said
I could lie on the grey vinyl couch
until it passed I was learning 
to read that year & learning too 
how to avoid the daily labours of noun
& verb grammar sentence syntax 
hourly drills of getting it right the
couch faced the wall where hung 
on the left an eye chart with 
its sad hieroglyphs of failure but 
on the right was another room's 
secret portrait askew all yellows & reds
& blues two windows two pillows  
two chairs the careening floor
& staggering door a counter image 
of the school's ordered brick
and parallel lines to lunch I 
was thinking sixth grader
because the perspective was close
but not perfect it was almost right
almost a room I could live in back 
in class they were perfecting
the period the comma the capital
letter I was turning on the verge
of another sentence slipping 
on the vertiginous floor of the room
in the wall where I had never gone 
it was telling me a story getting 
it right wasn't the point I would lie                                                                                        
there long minutes listening 
to my insides turn & surge not 
getting any better & not wishing to

Matthew M. Cariello

Matthew M. Cariello's poetry, A Boat That Can Carry Two (2011) and Talk (2019) were both published by Bordighera Press. His stories, poems and reviews have been published in Voices in Italian Americana, Poet Lore, Ovunque Siamo, Evening Street Review, Modern Haiku, The Long Story, Indiana Review, Iron Horse Review, and The Journal. He is currently a senior lecturer in the English department at OSU in Columbus.