Image: Tom Scholes
The Tower is commonly interpreted as meaning danger, crisis, destruction, and liberation.
This is a card of warning and possibility – create something new from something that ends in the will and limits of time alone. A change that must be, but should be for the good, with our power.
Everyone said you were nice
A good family
Right and proper
Always attending every occasion
Where one should be seen and noticed.
I was naïve amid smiles and curtsies
Appearances grand and proper
To know reality was all
Sticks and stones and broken bones.
Societies role models
Living atop your tower
Your castle on the hill
Where evil bred and festered
Like rats upon a dung heap.
You were the shylock of my fears
Nothing was for nothing
You made that so clear
You extracted every pound of flesh
As painfully as you could
But always with a smile
Always ‘well intentioned’
And always to your advantage.
You found a patsy, a stupid vassal
Whom you nurtured in that role.
Crush and ruin was your mantra
Leaving me shredded staring down
From a top the life you treasured so.
Escape seemed easy
Just a step, then a jump
To take away the pain.
But that pleasure I’ll never afford you
I walked away, head up high,
Pretense I would do no more.
Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/writing-prompt-july-17th-arcana-in-the-tower/
Morpethroad 
Evil often presents a pleasant face to hide the burning heart. To walk away with head held high is the route to freedom. Well done.
Thank you so much.
Fabulous poem–glad you could walk away whole and strong. Pretense takes a LOT of Energy.
It certainly does….
I love how you’ve used and interpreted this card Michael 🙂
You were the shylock of my fears
Nothing was for nothing
You made that so clear
You extracted every pound of flesh
As painfully as you could
But always with a smile
Always ‘well intentioned’
And always to your advantage.
This portion of this poem is so striking and great use of the word shylock – and the meanings and metaphors etc. that can be pulled from it – really wonderful way to have conveyed this story, the message!
This is a haunting write, because it depicts something we see way too often: predators, evil people, abusers, seeming like the kindest of all, making our ills unbelievable to ones who do not witness them themselves.
I do like the ending of your poem, I like that it beckons the reader who might direly need it to walk away, head up high, into a more fruitful situation; it calls the reader to look upon themselves and focus on themselves and seek happiness.