Drabbles of Art - Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh

I couldn't write a series of drabbles about art without visiting Vincent van Gogh's work. I did have something in mind for sunflowers but when I saw this lesser known work the drabble popped into my head.

If you've not read the previous drabbles in the series then you will find them all here:

http://thecultofme.blogspot.co.uk/p/as-promised-in-last-weeks-final-post-in.html


Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent van Gogh

There aren’t many pleasures that the dead can enjoy as they once did while alive. It is true that a precious few can be relived before the body degenerates too far, but when only bones remain what possible satisfaction can there be?

I have no lungs so I cannot inhale, but I can remember. All too easily I recall the ritual from a lifetime’s habit. The smoke curls inside a mouth no longer flesh and the imagined exhale brings contentment and also no small irony in the fact that this smoke was how I lost my lungs in the first place.