Omens

Her eyelids were painted blue.

When she closed her eyes the sea

rolled in like ten thousand fiery chariots,

leaving behind silence above & below

a thousand years old. He stood beneath

a high arched window, gazing out

at fishing boats beyond the dikes, their nets

unfurled, their offshore gestures

a dance of living in bluish entourage.

He was only the court’s chief jester.

What he said & did made them laugh,

but lately what he sometimes thought he knew

could cost him his polished tongue & royal wig.

He was the masked fool unmasking the emperor.

Forget the revelation. Forget the briny sea.

He had seen the ravishing empress naked

in a forbidden pose. Her blue eye shadow.

Aquamarine shells crusted with wormy mud.

Anyway, if he said half of what was foretold,

the great one would become a weeping boy

slumped beneath the Pillars of Hercules.