The Cost of Everything, by Alan Peat

St. Sebastian, by El Greco (Spain, b. Crete) c.1614

​The Cost of Everything

Saint Sebastian rests on the rough stone floor. Propped against a lime-washed wall, he is bleeding.

There are two more Sebastians in a corner far from the south-facing window, and one still perched on a rickety easel. 

Jorge* is methodical; he measures each canvas, notes its main features, then adds it to his long, numbered list. 

As if there is need to prove his father’s worth?

As if these tortured skies were not enough? 

Six arrows have found their mark. His limbs are bound but his eyes turn upward. And all about, the heavens are swirling.

carmine red --
a pierced heart sold 
to the highest bidder

Alan Peat

*After El Greco’s death (1621) his son, Jorge, compiled an inventory of the artist’s possessions. One of the St. Sebastians listed in the inventory is to be auctioned at the New York branch of Christie’s on the 5th Feb 2025.

Alan Peat is an English writer. In 2021 he placed third in the International Golden Triangle Haiku contest & second in the New Zealand International Haiku contest. In 2022 he was runner up in the British Haiku Society Haibun Award; honourable mention in the Haiku Poets of North California International Haibun contest & second in the Sandford Goldstein international tanka contest. In 2022 he was a guest author at Cornell University’s Mann Library. The following year he won the inaugural HSA Touchstone Award for haibun. He has also written books about ceramics, textiles, and the art of John Tunnard.