Some who earn a living repainting
famous artworks
specialize in stems, some leaves
or buds, others the two-tone vase
in van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
In online photos, they hang
outside a shop in the Chinese town
where they were made, each
a slightly
different hue, some
yellower, some orange,
an effect
of the film for printing process
or of slight discolorations
in the photos
the copyists used,
though van Gogh was also
unsure or couldn’t stop,
painting four versions,
each colored differently,
then three more copies
of the last, most famous one.
In my dreams
all the characters are me,
my waking job apparently
to peer repeatedly
at the same material
till finally I see.
