Tuesday, December 25, 2018

They Call Us the Ship of Fools

This is my poem inspired by Hieronymous Bosch's painting "Ship of Fools".



A wispy ship laden with hearty sustenance and false promises.
They told us of glorious blue seas and starry nights.
They gave us ladles, not oars, to prepare for our new land of aplenty.

Yet, they piled us onto the boat with harsh decrees:
Be gone, ye mad folk of the village!
Our innocents must be shielded from your madness and sins.
Ye clergymen and women, messengers of God, 
thou hast shown us little Providence by submitting to wickedness.

We submit wearily to our fates, climbing the steps with heavy hearts.
Among us on this ship are those who have hidden in fear.
They know too much, but say too little.
The power of their knowledge scared so many.
Thrust brutally onboard, these awkward shipmates suffer 
at the hands of the Inebriated. Ay, those are poor beings.
They only want to forget, not remember.

I am the only one who openly wears my Fool’s vestments.
I have felt the despair of life and only sought to heal.
Yet, one utterance, an ill begotten jest, brought me upon this listlessness ship 
into the shadows.

As we sail into the waters, we leave behind our sins and sorrows.
Our burdens will be borne by those who stood in the water to push us from the shore.
They gave us songs to remember.
Go on. Be merry and drink your wine, have hangin’ pancakes and all will be fine.

Sing heartily, ye fools. Our bleakest days will soon be upon our frail bodies.              
We will drift on the unknown seas, seeking a land to call our broken souls home.
Only the wisest among us, the Owl, shall pilot our ship into the darkness.

- Ashini J. Desai 2018

Note: I have on my other blog a post about Garden of Earthly Delights. Since then, I've become obsessed about his work.

A Commitment to Words