He felt unloved by his mother
when he was a child.

When he grew up, he became
a missionary at an

impoverished coal mine town.
He was beloved there, let a

sick woman live in his home
while he lived in a coal miner

shack, slept on the floor. The
people in that town called

him Christ of the Coal Mines.
But the heads of the missionary

program he worked for fired him;
he was too authentic for them.

He became an artist after that.
struggled to gain any recognition,

hardly sold any of his paintings.
He also struggled with mental,

health problems most of his life,
cut off his ear with a razor, gave

it to a prostitute at a brothel,
consigned to a hospital

for his mental breakdown, seemed
okay for a while

until he shot himself in the chest
with a gun,

died a starving artist, but today
his painting The Starry Night

sells for a billion dollars.

Bob Boyd