Idol Of The Holy Fool

Idol Of The Holy Fool
© Surazeus
2025 02 13

I hear the yellowhammer bird reply 
with platitudes of stoic principles 
to the crippled angel with tattered wings 
who limps down the signless road of false hope 
after blowing up bridges to strange worlds 
where the fool makes the whirling world stand still. 

The old woman under the maple tree 
tells the laughing turtle with raspy voice, 
"The most accurate measurement of courage 
is how people endure harsh suffering 
when they are the most vulnerable and weak," 
then gives last jar of honey to the fool. 

The half-blind man with weed-entangled curls 
paddles small wood boat on the purple lake 
and explains to the swan with diamond eyes, 
"Only cowards hide behind silence of faith," 
then dips his hand in waters of the mind 
when the fool throws his book into the water. 

The red tyrannosaurus with gold eyes 
blinks when steel bullets pelt his heaving chest, 
so he grasps green army tank with sharp claws 
and hurls it screeching into the swamp pool 
where soldiers scream in horror as they drown 
clutching gold idol of the holy fool. 

Raindrops glisten on the clear window glass 
as wind blows clouds across the desert plain 
where lizards scurry among the sagebrush, 
and devils make deals with poor guitar players, 
painters, and poets to sell them world fame, 
laughing as they all bow before the fool. 

The young girl in pink boots and green raincoat 
runs along wood fence in the rain-wet field 
as she flies her kite over the white church 
where blind angels sing hymns of ecstasy, 
then gazes entranced in sea-silver eyes 
of the fool who recites love poetry. 

Sitting upstairs in the small theater 
to watch the play Our American Cousin, 
Lincoln tells the ghost with the laughing gun, 
"Those who deny freedom to other people 
deserve it not for themselves," then he spreads 
vast wings to fly to Heaven with the fool. 

Watching finches on Galapagos Islands, 
Darwin explains to the tortoise of truth, 
"Freedom of thought is best promoted by 
gradual illumination of human minds 
with follows from the grand advance of science," 
while the fool writes his words in the notebook.