Two Fools

The fool in the lead seems to
think he can enjoy his excesses
and do penance at the same time.

This is not an unfamiliar attitude.
The fools appear on this leaf to
illustrate (loosely)

the opening of Psalm 53:
“The fool says in his heart:
There is no God.”

I can not say for certain now; now
nothing is certain. Another death
I did not stop for, because I could not

(would not!) stop for death. Whose fool
am I? Walking ahead or walking behind?
Discernment in a star? And gone now the

friendlier skies, the indifferent blue.
But to hear a voice upon those waters
is something, more than nothing.

Whose voice is that? And what is it
she is saying? Nothing—except
of deer, quail and ripening berries.

Author of the article

Joyce Sutphen’s first collection of poems, Straight Out of View, won the Barnard New Women Poets Prize; Coming Back to the Body was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award, and Naming the Stars won a Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. She grew up on a farm in Stearns County, Minnesota, and she teaches literature and creative writing at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. Her latest book, Modern Love & Other Myths, was published by Red Dragonfly Press in 2015. She is the second Minnesota Poet Laureate, succeeding Robert Bly.