Tonight's Poet Corner: Today Is Foolish

Today Is Foolish
by Belinda Roddie

There is imagination deep enough
to fill a baker's teaspoon, thick as flour
but hardly appetizing, the dollar on a string
versus the fake pregnancy announcement
typed in bruised text on a small tablet screen.

It is disconcerting how the humor
is lacking, like using coffee to soothe
a throat aching from laughter rather than
tea with just the right amount of honey. A
sweetness is needed to carry the trick out,
a gentle reminder that some scrapes
can't always be healed with a bandaid.

The jester stays in her tower now. Today,
she is foolish. Other days, she is wise,
dancing a choreography so neat that
the king does not notice how she mocks
his gait. He finds it all very clever. But

if she were to perform this particular
evening, she would caper and the monarch
would roar, "How dare you tease me!"
with the hot wax dripping from his teeth.
All taste lost. There is nothing but
dry dust in his cup.
The flavor is bland,
and too heavy in one's belly to trigger
a single guffaw.