Artists & Selfies Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Albrecht Dürer painted his portrait holding a thistle
In the 15th century, thistles were signs of fidelity.
It was also an aphrodisiac

Vincent Van Gogh painted his portrait with a bandaged ear
Putting his mental anguish out on display

Rembrandt painted himself as the Prodigal Son in the Brothel
Portraying his wife as a whore, but a merry one

Andy Warhol painted his selfie with spikey hair
As a pop art celebrity, a head in an empty background

Picasso painted himself contemplating death.
Fragmented into abstract splits and splinters

Francis Bacon showed his sorrow in paint
After his lover had just committed suicide
The face bends and distorts in painterly grief

Munch painted almost 100 selfies
In The Night Wanderer, he has no eyes, one hand

John Patrick Byrne depicted himself in a flowered jacket
It is Monty Pythenesque. A hippyish CD cover

What phone camera can come even close
To a face in paint or clay
Catching the inner workings of the self?