The Fool's Discontent, Part 3

Seven parts. The seventh part is best. The rest? Well, let's just say it essentially works as a multi-way comment on a certain subject...

Read Part 1, 2


III. (The Smiling Guide)

      Is it true what they say
      Are you a ghost
      Are you a slave?
      Are your veins ensheathed in cloudy ice?

“Oh, no, no!
This is my home
I was once inside your shoes
I was once a foolish child
But now with mastery of form
I proceed unharmed and warm”

      But warmth in full?
      In speech and face
      In subtle touch
      One feels it but – what of the heart? What of the soul?

“Of the soul?
Oh yes, in full
I am warmed in all, in full
I have learned the proper way
The way is here, my friend, I promise
My path to now has been the strongest”

      And truly think you this?
      No question
      Or hesitance
      Ever marks your placid brow?

“It could be true
It once was true
I used to wander late at night
Scattered in uncertainty
But here my mind with truth enfolded,
Heart and soul were gently molded
I can give you all my word
For I am now free as a bird
As such I’ve read, or so been told
Or seen in some art-form of old”

      But what of the wild plain
      The dark wood
      The burning sun?
      Even now you cringe in the light of the window!

“The light, the light
The outer light?
I don’t…
I mean…
Ah yes…
But no…
It is not what you think

“Our light in here
Is much more clear
than that of cloudy outside dreaming
I need not those foolish charms
Put point to point, in here is better
This I claim, and to the letter

“Now pray do not continue asking
Things so fully unalarming
I am equipped to take your tasking
Words so sharp yet so unharming
Have a little better manner
If you hope to hold our banner”


So round the halls and through the rooms you sweep
A smiling guide, an anxious hopeful son
Through gliding doors
Over spotless white tiles
Up the stone-stepped stair
Past the humming piercing lights
Past the sparkling gleaming granite statue
Of Old J--, the local conquering hero
A trailblazing fearless giver of most importance…

  (But oh the dust and shadows of the back rooms!
  What dark and lofty secrets do they hide?
  What souls and speeches now vilified
  Might have been heard, long, long ago
  By the thin and humorless window-light
  By the fading crusty leather volumes
  Before their melancholy night?)

“…and that was Old J--
What a hooligan
He was back in his stodgy day!
We owe him all, or so I say –
Do you listen not today?” your smiling guide inquires
“Never mind - this is your time
Follow me on up the tower
Come and see the honest power
Of all we are and want to be
Look through me, I’m not ashamed
Of what you see, of what I am
And soon you’ll know the cause!”