Steve Klepetar

The King’s Fool

The king hanged his fool today
before sun lit up the sky,

before heat roared in, roasting
the spindly trees,

but the fool returned with his tongue
stuck out the side of his mouth

while the king kept his back
to the sea, which growled

in its deep, gray throat, as the fool
drowned again and again with his hands on fire.

Steve Klepetar misses many people, but has learned not to weep over broken lamps.