An abstract painting had as its title, “Horse, Rider
and Buildings” and while there were buildings
of a sort in the background, I could find no
image of a horse or a rider.

After studying the painting for several days
I was able to finally make out the faint image
of a horse and a figure turned in the opposite
direction of the horse.

I also found what looked to be another figure
a duck, a fist, a boot, maybe. It was like a child’s
puzzles where you are asked to find the hidden
objects within a chaotic picture.

A few years after the artist painted this work, at 33
he was drafted into the Italian Army to fight in World War I.
During a cavalry training exercise, he was thrown
from his horse and trampled to death.

Was this painting a premonition of his death or just
a coincidence, this image of a ghostly horse?
Was it his “crack of light under a closed door?”
Was it hard for me to see because one’s own death is hard to see?