The Napowrimo.net prompt for Day 27 is to pick a tarot card and write a poem about ‘the images or ideas that are associated with it’. My poem is inspired by the Two of Cups, and partly influenced by side 1 of David Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees album.

Two of Cups

1
Fucking right
‘overindulging for the sake of the emotional high’

I think it’s about time I was allowed one
I’m so tired of the low and the middle
and scraping by while the rest of the world
acts out its fantasies eight tweets at a time

Could you have ever imagined a time
when the light would shine upon you
and you’d bask in its warmth?

I used to think I could
but now I know that the spotlight
is only for entertainers and suspects

I’m not an entertainer…

2
Lights…nostalgia…
ink in the well

Once the rope has been cut
there’s no way back up—or down

You’ve got to take the cards you’ve been dealt

I don’t know what the years have come down to
I just know that I haven’t found a way out
the ladder reaches only so high
and the rope only so low

Will you come for me now?

I hear the sounds of harps fading
and strumming guitars growing
and my heartbeat striking louder…

3
I wish the notice that flashes across the screen
would have some good news for me

I thought I felt a spark
but it seems I was wrong—
or maybe I was looking in the wrong place

Would she lay hands on me
to let me know it’s all right?

Would I understand if she did?

I won’t let myself drown
I won’t let myself drown
I won’t let myself drown

4
I once drew the eight of diamonds—
exactly the card I asked for

It subsequently disappeared
along with the rest of the deck

It was more than I could have given her
I would have saved myself a lot of trouble
had I realized this at the time

The magician has yet to come back
with my card

(26 April 2018—posted April 27th)