In 2022 during a routine X-ray of a Van Gogh painting about to be hung at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, conservators discovered a self-portrait of the artist concealed in layers underneath “Head of a Peasant Woman.”
Reuse we do—what we know of our lives.
Little or big hurts, moments of joy,
what we concealed in secrets and lies.
Repeated themes we cannot escape.
Darkness that rims the eyes, tired ears,
all the days we breathed afraid—
somewhere there in each artist’s work—
what lingers refigured, stashed
in the back of memory’s trailer park.
Man with a hat and scarf, this woman
in moth wings—images of pasts
smoothed over, redolent and human.
—
Tricia Knoll is a Vermont poet. She is a Contributing Editor to Verse Virtual. She paints only word portraits. Website: triciaknoll.com
© 2022, Tricia Knoll
Halfway Down the Stairs 