The Joker In The Deck

Almost every culture on earth has a Joker/Trickster character in its legends. Herein the Joker speaks...

I am the Joker in the deck,

I ride the hurricane,

I am the pain in your neck,

I come again and again.

I am the Joker in the deck,

I have a thousand names,

I caused the Great Train Wreck,

I inspired the Roman games.

I am the card that's wild,

I am the straw that's short,

I am a lawsuit filed,

I am the war not fought.

I am the Joker in the deck,

I am the Vikings' Loki,

I am the raven's peck,

I am the jammed lock's broke key.

I caused the two world wars,

I'm going to cause the third,

I guide the lion's claws,

And walk away as free as a bird.

I am The Trickster and The Thief,

I steal the Sun and the world goes dark,

I start fires for light relief,

It's all one hell of a lark.

I've been there since the dawn of time,

I'll be there when the Sun burns out,

The road up 's been a real long climb,

But the long drop will be the world's last shout.

© 2022 The Iron Horseman

Reviews

[Robert Haigh]

An inventive poem, with a hint of high spirited humour, yet full of unease and foreboding! Is there such a thing as destiny or fate? Or do we make our own destiny? Some things do seem destined to be, choose how we play our cards! An interesting write!

[The Iron Horseman]

I believe we all make our own destiny, be it good or bad.

[AE]

I really like this twist on the I am poem. It's so mischevious and this guy's really got his fingers in all the pies. Could the "I am" be a reference to a book I've read? Maybe that's a reach, but it's fun to think about. I think, however the 5th stanza is a bit sudden, maybe clunky. I find it strange only because it's the first stanza to not start with "I am." It could work as a volta, but then the next stanza returns to the patern, only for it to be broken again in the last stanza. Instead of providing an exciting change of pace to add some unpredictability into the mix, it creates inconsitency and distrupts the momentum of the poem.

[The Iron Horseman]

Thanks, AE. I enjoy a nice bit of constructive criticism. I found this interesting because the sixth stanza was originally the fifth and vice versa. I switched them purely to break up the "I am"s which I felt were becoming a bit tedious at that point. Obviously, I would have done better to stick with the original format!

[John the Baptist]

I get the feeling this is the serpent of Eden speaking.

[The Iron Horseman]

Lol! Yes, JTB, it does sound like his kind of speech, doesn't it? I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!