William Trowbridge has stopped by the pages of Light before in the guise of Oldguy (Reviews, Summer/Fall 2020). Now he’s back with a collection recounting the exploits of a classic persona, The Fool, traced through world history from Creation to the Not Yet, in Trowbridge’s crafted and crafty style.
A quote from The Fool: His Social and Literary History, by Enid Welsford, sets the stage: “… It is all very well to laugh at the buffeted simpleton: we too are subject to the blows of fate, and of people stronger and wiser than ourselves, in fact we are the silly Clown, the helpless Fool….” With this introduction, the seriousness ends and the sendup of the human predicament begins:
Call Him Mr. Lucky
Fool recalls his demotion from archangel
to something called an archetype after he
was flimflammed by Lucifer and his buddies,
who seemed to have a viable way out of
a place where everyone’s locked in orbit
around The Almighty, who likes his hallelujahs
chorused non-stop, like on a cracked LP.
But making Hell a heaven didn’t fly,
and now he’s on earth, buying Florida
swampland, phony Rolexes, and weekend
ski trips to Uganda…
Subsequent irreverent accounts describe the Fool’s presence in Bible stories, European history, miscellaneous legends, literature, and culture. The poems reveal the well-furnished mind and often slapstick spirit Trowbridge brings to the project. Sample titles: “Robin Fool and His Disconsolate Men;” “In 1823, after Inventing a Flush Toilet, Fool Discovers Penicillin, X-Rays, Plastic, and Super Glue;” and one of my favorites: