The Parable of the Blind

This horrible but superb painting
the parable of the blind
without a red 

in the composition shows a group
of beggars leading
each other diagonally downward 

across the canvas
from one side
to stumble finally into a bog 

where the picture
and the composition ends back
of which no seeing man 

is represented the unshaven
features of the des-
titute with their few 

pitiful possessions a basin
to wash in a peasant
cottage is seen and a church spire 

the faces are raised
as toward the light
there is no detail extraneous 

to the composition one
follows the others stick in
hand triumphant to disaster 

William Carlos Williams 

Pieter Brueghel, The Parable of the Blind (1568)

Oil on canvas, approximately 34 inches x 61 inches. Museo e Gallerie Nazionali de Capodimonte, Naples.