Before Death

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Medusa, Oil on canvas mounted on wood, 1597. 60 cm × 55 cm (24 in × 22 in). Uffizi, Florence, Italy.

I am writing to you because I wish you would die.
Die with ants in your mouth.

For years undiscovered.

Even vultures don't look for you.

Your snake wraps you

like in a Caravaggio.

Since the day you told me you would die

You have been paralyzed in this moment.

Almost dead.

In power, in drunkenness, in debt, in exile, in covered pains. 

  

You scream.

Never like Munch

You hold it with you. 

So nobody knows.

In agony, in guilt, in weakness, in excuses, and through adaptation. 

I wish you could just die

Die fast and for once.

I wish you death

Because death is the pain of you alone.

Edvard Munch. The Scream. Pastel on board. 1895. © 2012 The Munch Museum/The Munch-Ellingsen Group/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.