“King Lear and the Fool in the Storm” by William Dyce (1806–1864) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I was convicted by a council of my peers,

for the heinous crime of being poor,

for not embracing the sacred concept of greed,

as any decent citizen should.

I was ostracized from our society

for exhibiting wanton signs of caring,

for those who had even less than I.

I was publicly humiliated

for not accepting credit

and said to be personally responsible

for the bursting of the bubble…

The bubble that was inflated,

by selling things on paper,

things that had yet to be built,

but now somehow never would,

all because of me, they said!

I made the grave mistake

of pointing at the Emperor

and exposing something sad,

which should have been left unsaid…

But how was I to know,

who had never been let into their conspiracy of Error,

the error of my ways, apparently!

I was finally evicted, told never to return,

for the unpardonable practice of being happy

and even daring to laugh out loud,

for smiling at the world,

for not noticing the cloud…

The cloud that should be the bane of anyone´s existence,

the one of not having enough, not nearly enough…

or so they would have me believe!

And so now I face execution,

hanging by the neck until I expire…

for refusing to repent, repent my evil ways

that are not in accordance with the World´s.

But when all is said and told,

I shall go out with a smile, a rebel till the end

and may the last laugh me on me, my friends.

That is my farewell present to you!

Signed, The Fool.