Caravaggio's "Saint John the Baptist" (March 2025)

 I sat sorta slumped over on my rigid wooden chair barely holding my handle of aristocrat, It was plastic thank god, I imagined myself loosening my grip and letting the bottle hit the wooden floor below me, the bottle would probably bounce once, or maybe not. I considered releasing carboy to find out. I decided against it. I imagined I looked somewhat like a modern sort of Caravaggio’s “Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness”. The painting resided in the art museum back home. It had always resonated with me despite my somewhat Pagan nature. Over the summer I had gone on a date with a girl from the internet, she was an art history major at some school I can’t even remember, a couple drinks in she started going on about how it was her favorite painting in the Nelson, she went on about its significance, something about the contrast of color, I don’t remember, I was drunk. I sort of tuned out anyways once she had brought up the painting, I started thinking about the pit in my stomach I’d get at seven years old staring up at the painting.