27/08/2019
On the wall at my mothers house
I have a print in beautiful frame
Of Van Goghs ‘Starry Night’
An excellent gift
For my 19th birthday
So while I do my time
I had the jail librarian
Print me at A3 in color
The very same ‘Starry Night’
A week later
The screws came around
And said:
No more pictures on the walls
Take it down
Disappointed I acquiesced
And as I took it down
It tore into pieces
Just another reminder
That jail is where beauty goes to die
And all here is blackened
Misery and death
The jail librarian was an awesome person; she would happily print you out whatever you wanted to put on the walls of your cell. For me this was the Thrasher Logo, Henry Rollins, Noam Chomsky, Smashing Pumpkins and all sorts of stuff that I was into as a younger man. At some point a long time ago, as a tortured artist myself, I discovered Van Gogh and took a liking to his work and story. Funnily enough it was through the band NOFX, who did a cover of the song ‘Vincent’ on a punk rock sampler in the 90’s. There’s an excellent movie called Loving Vincent that is one of few films I’ve had the patience for post release. Poor old Vincent, I still love Starry Night to this day.
