How to be a fortune teller

Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants said to him, “There is a medium at Endor.” (1 Samuel 28: 7)

How to be a fortune teller

 

First, work-out how much they will pay

and what it is that they want you to say:

 

the hope or fear they cannot admit;

so, they came along to you to hear it.

 

Find out who they really are,

watch their gait, their mien and posture.

 

Once there came three men whose clothes were of shepherds,

but they were not shepherds;

 

they did not smell of wool, their skin was clean;

one gave orders with unassumed bearing:

 

tall, handsome, with sad, shy eyes –

I noticed King Saul beneath the disguise.

 

Our first monarch, who had banned all sorcery,

had come to me at night for necromancy.

 

Supressing surprise, I considered what mattered

from the calls of heralds and the gossip I’d gathered:

 

servants whispered that before the was crowned

he’d hid behind bags, afraid of the crowds;

 

for he was a loner who loved the fields,

ploughed with oxen, cared for his mules.

 

Soldiers in taverns would mimic the music

a minstrel played to soothe his spirit,

 

and then they’d sing a drunken round:

“Saul killed a thousand, but not ten thousand;

 

he killed the men, but not their children;

not their wives, their mules or oxen!”

 

As I thought on this it all became clear:

Life had become too brutal to bear.

 

He had not come for promise or warning,

but to be reconciled to his ending.

 

If, when you speak you get something wrong,

don’t blink or hesitate, just carry on.

 

As he was a king, I thought he expected

me to conjure a god for him to talk with;

 

but he called for an old friend and guide,

Samuel, a prophet who had recently died.

 

So, I spoke to the King in the manner of a friend:

“On the battlefield your life will end,

 

your kingdom given to your minstrel, a shepherd,

who sings as he brings his sword from scabbard”.

 

The trick is to say what they need you to say,

to win their trust and take your pay.

 

I called him to sit upon my bed

and stroked his foolish, well-meaning head.

 

We supped together on wine and meat,

then he went outside into the night.

 

I clicked the coins, counting the cost

of the lies I’d sold and the faith he’d lost –

 

that kindly King who could no longer cope –

I’d fed his fears and drunk all hope.

 

 2022.