Thursday 18 June 2015

Drabbles of Art - Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh


I couldn't write a series of drabbles about art without visiting Vincent van Gogh's work. I did have something in mind for sunflowers but when I saw this lesser known work the drabble popped into my head.

If you've not read the previous drabbles in the series then you will find them all here:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/p/as-promised-in-last-weeks-final-post-in.html


Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh

There aren’t many pleasures that the dead can enjoy as they once did while alive. It is true that a precious few can be relived before the body degenerates too far, but when only bones remain what possible satisfaction can there be?

I have no lungs so I cannot inhale, but I can remember. All too easily I recall the ritual from a lifetime’s habit. The smoke curls inside a mouth no longer flesh and the imagined exhale brings contentment and also no small irony in the fact that this smoke was how I lost my lungs in the first place.

1 comment:

  1. David Sedaris wrote a great short great short story collection called When You Are Engulfed in Flames that used that picture as it's cover.

    But anyway, really liked this drabble! Interesting idea to use classic art as prompts!

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