The Fool
I am the man you see on a ladder
square centre of a field
on your morning commute.
The rake in my hands
clears a patch in the clouds
for a clutch of sunflower seeds.
Next time you look up from your paper
a pother of songbirds have tatted
their calling cards into my hair.
I step out from the ladder
my dog at my heel;
we go into the teetering air.
Helen Ivory is a poet and visual artist. Her fifth Bloodaxe collection is The Anatomical Venus (2019). She is an editor for IS&T and teaches creative writing online for the UEA/NCW. Her New and Selected will appear from MadHat (US) later this year.
Note: This poem is from Fools World, a Tarot which was made with the artist Tom de Freston and published by Gatehouse Press.