I
a wise judge led about on a leash by his fool
a woman large with child labours as if about to attempt a feat of strength
a drunkard babbles in a dark alleyway and makes no sense at all
a queen deposed by history her crown raffled
like a trinket at a wayside fair presided over by a fortune teller in a lurid tent
dealing the 22 major arcana of the tarot
for to fool journeymen they had neither begun nor finished their tribulations
perplexed as any of us
II
scarlet ladies their knees trembling in fear
and in the distance the enormous boom of guns
and lighning flashing back in anger at the folly of war
and a lost generation grey trenches effigies of men
even strippling youths burned
the wind roaring in the silence like a snow leopard dancing in the sky
III
see the child
in cadences of hope
see the child
step out on a midsummer morn
a portal to life a giant expanse of hope
see the child
Flynnpoetry 