2023 NaPM 2 April

[RiverNotch]

Many of the 1 April prompts, including those of the 2nd and 3rd NaPMs here, were in honour of April Fools' Day. And so (once more, by milo):

Rules: Write a poem for national poetry month on the topic or form described. Each poem should appear as a separate reply to this thread. The goal is to, at the end of the month have written 30 poems for National Poetry Month.

Topic: In honor of April fool's day, write a poem about being a fool or being fooled or fools, fooling someone else or general foolishness.
Form: any
Line requirements: 8 lines or more

[dukealien]

Folly Doubled and Redoubled


He tells a story on himself
or on his people showing their
beard-pulling bickering or blind
pursuit of pelf, exclusiveness
and tragic history.

We laugh at his fine foolery;
he thinks we laugh at him or with him
without recognizing his
superiority to notice
failings in himself as we don’t
(oh, that clever fellow...  but
we do, it’s why we hate the Jew).

[Mark A Becker]

April Grins

April wears a foolish grin, beaming
blossoms from bare limbs, blending
birdsong buzzing sounds, warming
up our eyes with flowers, urging
green from underground, peeking
sunshine between showers.

We can feel the weather, turning
now from worse to better, luring
us into the sunny, catching
us off guard with blowing, laughing
though it isn’t funny, fooling
us, suddenly snowing.

[TranquillityBase]

Trickster knows his trade
always knows the way to the fair
where tattooed women 
lead us into temptation
among a carnival of fools.
He saves us for himself
leads us dancing into the hall of mirrors
or, like Circe, turns us into swine.
When the dance is done
Trickster is nowhere to be found
and we hide our nakedness
once again.

[Quixilated]

A Fool’s Lament

I donned a coat of many colors,
closed my eyes and dreamed a wish
with fervent folded hands.

I never reached the twinkling stars,
instead, tinkling laughter follows me
like these tiny maddening bells.

I wished to see smiling faces everywhere,
but these are too wide and full of teeth.
My own grin in reply is a plaster cast facade.

The fool is loved by all and none,
for I bend and bow to please the crowd
but no one pleases me.

[Tiger the Lion]

Mirage 

you are still flesh
and bone and blood
and I am still complete

the kids do all the cooking now
and most of the household chores

we sip wine on the porch
and tell our grandkids
the secrets of our success

[CRNDLSM]

What kind of person
masters a skill, makes a name
starting from the bottom,
then after a decade
quits, only to start again
a completely different industry,
culture shocked, forced to adapt
and learn, and become 
a completely different person?

[RiverNotch]

Fools fall in love. The wise
slip into it gradually, if at all:
the wise are often left alone.

Alone? It is the even greater fool
who thinks a cloistered life
is lived alone. The trees, too, live,
and the creeping things speak,
the running things think
and feel, the swimming
and the flying things
have faces that gaze,
that shine golden
in the sun---

You mishear me.
To be left alone
is not to live alone.

[Semicircle]

The system unobstructed
flows in time's current
bending frivolities
into assets; tools.

All in place
a well-oiled machine,
until some fool particle
drifts into the gears.

[Wjames]

I'd like to purchase a tree-house
but I can't get approved for a loan.
There isn't such thing as a free house
and my legs are too tired to roam.

If I rented a drey from a squirrel
there wouldn't be room for my nuts,
so I'm moving back in with my parents
and locking myself in a rut.