A Deck of Cards

Be careful there, and not look at them with smirks and grins

Be careful there, when you look at him. The smiling face, and laughter, as he leans back and grins nonchantly at the world.

Shallow, you think, a joker. A fool. Yet all in all its always been the fools who see the truth. Of all the cards, beware the fool.

For he laughs and grins, and smiles and tumbles, and when you least expect, brings forth to bear all the wit and wisdom that lurks beneath that slimy rubber suit. And when he does...

King Lear went mad for a reason, you know.

Everyone judges the fool by what he says. And that alone, is his greatest power. For what it is not what he says but what he doesn't that defines his intentions, and few people notice that. He confounds the mind-readers by appearing with no mind to read, confuses the seers and wise-men by making ignorance seem like knowledge, and idiocy a form of wisdom.

And thus the wise men begin to fear the Fool, while the laughing populace watches him juggle.

And juggle well he does, the wise men, the king, and the folk of the land. It is never either of the three that remains truely free, or holds most power. For the fool is beholden to none but himself, for no one asks anything of the fool, yet the fool may ask everything of everyone else.

He throws all duties in the air, and catches them as he pleases. And the people love him for that. A fool knows no limits, and has no boundaries, for it is his job to defy the boundaries, to challenge out limits, beyond what sane men would dare. And yet the fool may appear far saner than any man before.

Why do you think the Joker is such a classic villian?

Sometimes the fool may wear the guise of a king.

Beware the fool, for beneath the bells is a dagger, drenched in blood.