The magician waves his wand,
and through the azure haze of mum-
bled incantations,
you see the sea (miraged) again.
He taps his banker’s top-hat to declare
that all is closed and fine
that sand is water, that coal is clean,
and that the tangerine of wild-fire is a shade of blue.
The magician waves his wand again
and tells you how the south is north,
that what’s grey is green,
that your deal is sealed
and you believe,
yes, and yes, you believe, believe because
of being petrified in lack
and wishing the oasis to quench
your burning thirst in drought.
Linking to Sunday Muse and to Earthweal and the Writer’s Pantry.
—
January 25, 2020
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Brilliant, Bjorn! This would be a great poem over at Brendan’s site, Earthweal today!!!!!! I cant wait till I never have to hear that banker saying sand is water ever again.
When we want something so bad….we do believe in desperation. It seems that those in power that wave their wands of what they can do….it is always full of lies and deceit. So glad to see you again at the Muse Bjorn.
So well written, Bjorn. Why do magicians run for office?!?!
Yes, there is some magical thinking on behave of people who believe in the magicians who have sprung up all over the world. Hopefully, the smoke will clear soon and the illusion can be revealed for what it is.
The master of illusion is the serpent of destruction.
Absolutely stunning!
The Magician card in tarot is one of my favourites.. making the impossible possible to manifest your individual purpose… or at least believe, believe in improbability.
I really enjoyed this and read it over a few times to absorb the deep effect. Thank you.
Magicians exist to transform reality into fantasy … in a drying, charring world, a drop of Eden goes a long way.
What a wonderful poem – it evokes so many emotions
This is…yeah, no words. It’s like you’ve turned anger into a kind of limelight for a terrible pageant.
Alas, that the oasis is a mirage!
The all-too-real drought has lasted long, here.
You aptly nail the way our world has become, the truth of it, right here–so many little two bit magicians showing off their illusions, all so they and their masters can glut themselves. I especially like this :”…that sand is water, that coal is clean,/and that the tangerine of wild-fire is a shade of blue….”
This is absolutely brilliant, Bjorn!💝 The tone, the imagery all makes for an unforgettable read.
kaykuala
of being petrified in lack
and wishing the oasis to quench
your burning thirst in drought.
One goes to the extreme in a crisis. One is kept fearful lest one gets caught in a web of troubles.
Hank
Wow.
It’s a circus, isn’t it? The magician feeds the world the stinkiest of poisons and the world (well, a lot of the world) inhales and believes the magician just gave them flowers. Where’s a gas mask when one needs to smell reality?
The magician wields ultimate power here.
Good one Björn!
Yeah, how does he make people actually believe his crap? All these lies from a delusional narcissist?.
Nice poem you have here. Too bad it can’t be pinned to the top of the official Whitehouse website.
You wow-ed me with this one Björn
Happy Sunday
Much❤love
I seems as if the POTUS does have a magic wand< Bjorn, and he's able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. But like all stage magicians, he needs others to pull of the illusions.
I enjoyed the colourful imagery of ‘azure haze of mum- / bled incantations’ and ‘tangerine of wild-fire is a shade of blue’.
Sorry about the typos – I have cold fingers.
Perfect. It’s a sleight of hands and words.
And if you don’t believe that then you have fallen for FAKE NEWS. I am not sure those followers will ever wake up. Good we have term limits but for these fellows ONE is too many.
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Ah. the magicians speak with forked tongue and so many, inexplicably, believe!
wow stunning poem and these last 3 lines so powerful. A mirage feels better than facing the truth
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride . . . ” It truly is illusion making, all this lying. It’s Animal Farm–George Orwell saw this all coming. Your poem is brilliant. Maybe it will help the blind to see.
This is incredibly beautifully written, Bjorn. Believing because we want to believe, because we need to believe – want and need loaning great power to liars.
This is awesome! In this world of alternative truth … as in: LIES … and sheep-like followers … as in you-know-whose: base … pieces, such as this one, take on a chilling importance, that they likely wouldn’t have had, just a few years ago – though, as this poem is so smartly rendered, it would stand out, regardless of political climate. Excellent writing!
Whata great post this is Bjorn. Once wealth rules no sense will be made of the action od greedy, biased investors and governments that approve of them. How they hate opposition to their dreams of wealth over survival of the planet believing something will turn up for them even though that doesn’t include the rest of us and they are so stupid that it is bound to someone elses fault when things really go wrong,
Climate deniers know the science, they just choose profit over the earth. And maybe we’ve reached a point where it no longer makes a difference.
Oh, we are fed false so bankers pockets can remain bloated. What do we do with our despair?
Awesome!
Oh, the magician’s deceptions are sometimes recognized too late.
We believe because if we didn’t, well, that would be too much to contemplate.
That last stanza is powerful. Easier to believe in the magic.
Liars, liars all!!
I was a “Magician’s Helper” once on a cruise ship, for most of his show. All the time he needed a helper (stooge). My favorites were his card tricks and the part where he drove his sward through my neck.
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