From Fine Artist to Con-Artist

1. Shadowy hills under starry nights  
paint palettes dark blue and gray  
sketch the donkeys and the daffodils  
catch the blistering sun and the autumn chills  
in amazingly pale colors on the snowy land  
look out on a horrendous summer's day  
with eyes that know the darkness in my soul  
swirling clouds in violet orange, purple haze  
sadly reflect in Vincent's eyes, of china blue.  
 
2. Auvers-sur-Oise (France), July 29, 1890  
my beloved father Vincent van Gogh  
shot himself in the chest  
he died two days later, his last words:  
"la tristesse durera toujours"  
the sadness will last forever.  
 
3. Delirious depressions, shyly counterbalanced  
by the holy fire for divine Art for Art's sake  
l'Art pour l'Art, uncontrollable forest fires  
volcanic eruptions raging in the burning belly  
even blue, moody & down, Larger than Life  
permanently caught in frenzy downward spirals  
endless cruel rollercoaster with no exit, no check-out    
frantically brushing & painting the sanity away.  
 
4. Inspired by his suicidal, but brilliant dad  
Vincent Jr. aimed to outperform the modern Dutch master  
real fine man and artist, the immortal Vincent van Gogh.  
 
5. Con-artist Vincent Jr. naturally progressed  
to become world's most advanced sovereign  
by perfecting the terrific fine art  
of the Charles Ponzi scheme, fraudulent investing scam  
promising non-existing high rates of return  
with (un-realistic) little risk to (over-confident) greedy investors  
creating favorable amazing impressions  
hyper-creatively plotting and scheming  
out-of-the-box cuisine, cooking all the Financial Accounting  
and Operational Audit books of the Public Library  
to get the window dressing, the deceptive front  
the cheating and lying, the half-truths & misrepresentations  
absolutely, exactly right - Junior's compulsive-obsessive  
modus operandi to de-risk, reduce the risk of getting busted  
being caught by the mean coppers, face police brutality  
perfectly soothed beneath the artist's rip-off hand  
in all the rainbow colors of high-security federal prisons.  
 
6. In his exuberant transformation from fine artist to con-artist  
Vincent Jr, in a nutshell, made serious money indeed - no doubt  
but No Free Lunch, he also developed an impressive track record  
of trouble with the law - civil laws, environmental laws  
securities laws, bankruptcy laws, animal welfare laws  
you name it, by Hell or high water  
Junior was into serious trouble  
with almost all the laws in the country.  
 
7. Our Father in Heaven  
now I understand, father Vincent  
what you tried to say to me  
and how you suffered for my insanity  
and how you tried to set me free,  
with van Gogh drawings & paintings  
bail me out from jail, handsome payments in kind  
I was young, would not listen - I did not know how  
perhaps imprisoned, between other ragged  
men in ragged cloths, without the money,  
the alcohol, the girls, without even God Almighty  
perhaps I'll listen now.