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Saturday, June 09, 2007

Random foolishness

Cartomancy

I’m the new deck, and I’m the joker
in the pack: the divine fingernail, having
slit the cellophane, shuffles my foolishness
until every slippery bit’s interlaced.

Look, and you still won’t see it—how
each card uncannily dealt repeats in bells
and motley, numbers snaking away from
the jingling, every face card now the Fool.

The teller leaves my multiplicities face-up
on the silk and I read myself through others’
readings, all fortunes interwoven, a net of near-
meaning until an infinite hand passes over this
iterative dream, fanning me, us, back to one.

5 comments:

chris miller said...

.. or in the words of Steve Miller (no relation):

I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker
I sure dont want to hurt no one

I'm a picker
I'm a grinner
I'm a lover
And I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun

jarvenpa said...

Oh, this is good, Lori! And I love your ear (um, your sense of sound in the poem..)

am said...

Wow! Good work. Resonant.

Larry said...

Very nice poem, chock-full of splendid word-choices and images -- and I got a kick out of Chris Miller's quote from an old song. That analogy hadn't occurred to me!

dinahmow said...

Pictures, words, thoughts...all strands that weave through your blog.Sugared enticements.The sweet tooth keeps coming back!