Owl-Eyed Jester

Owl-Eyed Jester
© Surazeus
2023 07 03

He hides his fear of irrelevancy 
behind mask of confessional poetry 
as owl-eyed jester in temple of truth 
who reincarnates as messiah sleuth 
to mock the tyrant in the ivory tower 
who tries to bottle essence of the flower. 

Weary in the castle of crumbling sand 
while typing letters in his Nowhere Land, 
the owl-eyed jester in chalk-dusty suit 
scans metric mystery of the moon-bone flute 
to teach young wizards art of magic spells 
by charting fate on maps with parallels. 

Beside Aeneas and Odysseus 
on wingless horse of the oblivious, 
I follow ghost of Plato in heath mist 
from pool where Echo and Narcissus kissed 
to Realm of Ideas in walls of Heaven 
where I receive mushrooms from the dream raven. 

With aching bones of fragile honesty 
I imitate Orphean travesty 
by busking at midnight on empty streets 
near glass castles of the cultural elites 
where vampires rule empire of privilege 
till owl-eyed jester commits sacrilege. 

Falling asleep over old epic poem, 
while lost followers continue to roam, 
the owl-eyed jester in the rugged hills 
studies the king who operates flour mills 
to prove not all airplanes fall from the sky 
while keeping Sabbath of the curious why. 

Still searching for aquarium by the sea 
where dolphins chat about how to live free, 
the owl-eyed jester dancing in Stonehenge 
prepares elixir with honey and orange, 
then sings elegy for the Union dead 
who imitate dinosaurs in his head. 

Each monument that honors some dead hero, 
based on concept of the bountiful zero, 
since God is Gardener of the human tribe 
when she tends flowers with maternal vibe, 
will be torn down by social justice squads 
who argue over wisdom of the gods. 

When humans suffer dark night of the soul 
they conjure face of God from the White Whole 
so owl-eyed jester builds the Promised Land 
where I can play in the rock and roll band 
with lyre of Mercury I stole from Death 
to encode truth in the weird shibboleth.