Il Buffone Miserable Poem by Singer Joy

It is hard to tell where
This ends, and I begin.

When I see those
Guppy-filled puddles,
I would cry. For they
Gape up at me,
Crying:
'Silence-Silence.'
And all I can do is
Gape
Right
Back.

And if I were ever to tell anyone these things,
It would be you.
And if I were ever to lie about these things,
It would be now.

Have you ever gazed,
Through tears,
At the future?

Have you felt hazed
By years
Of torture?

When the crocodiles cry,
I am as they.

When you ask me why,
I have nothing to say.

Through the freeze I can
Feel
What the lilies pulsed:

In shining, ivory radiance.

In the breeze I can
Hear
What the swallows sang:

More shrill, and delicate yet.

And woe-
Woe! Am I to remember
How they felt.

Oh, and
Oh... Such cards
That I am dealt.

(We see now, through
Soft frills how
The Joker's eye smiles;
Such is the tattoo of
My soul
On the tarot.)

When the crocodiles cry,
I am as they.

When you ask me why,
I've only this card to play.

On winds too soft and sweet
Came the lilt of that
Melody.
Too terrible was such
Godly noise, for me.

I buried my arms in
Seas of words-
Hours flew,
And I knew
Of no other time
Than that crying brilliance.

Yet those folds of beauty
I lost myself in
We call wrinkles.

Just as the rose,
Infatuations fade.

Then came, too bitter,
That reprise of the
Trepidation of the
Puddles-
(The Reflections) -
That the guppies
And I knew.

Now I, too, find myself
In the fish-pond.
We, helpless many, simply
Gape
Up.
Those foolish few who return
Our gaze
Will find a Hex upon them.

(What fools were they-
Love lost is the greatest sadness of all.
Ease is to those
Who never heard
Its harsh call.)

When the crocodiles cry,
I am as they.

When you ask me why,
I turn and swim away.