Circus Clown
Circus Clown
Roll up! Roll up!
The circus is in town,
"Damn the weird and wonderful,
we've come to see the clown".
First, ladies and gentlemen
An amazing double-act to see,
Two fat ladies codgitating
Psychedelic Imagery.
Bearded children flying,
On a razor sharp trapeze,
Just an awesome spectacle,
As screams can only please.
For your delictation
Escape artistes tied tight,
Immersed in boiling liquid,
Horrors to delight.
Unicyclists stacked
Maybe seventeen tall,
The crowds secretly wishing
Chrome and flesh would fall.
Screams and gasps levitate
Stilted jugglers on high-wire,
Kaleidoscopic wizardry
As they breathe out rainbow fire.
Feast your eyes on the impossible,
A conjurer with no sleeves,
The audience vanishes
And still no-one believes.
A menagerie in formation,
Performing whips crack loud,
Tumbling through rings of fire,
To the delight of the beying crowd.
Midgets packed in suitcases,
Wrapped in chains and locks,
Boing! burst on laughing springs
Like a hundred Jacks in a box.
Acrobatic mystics,
Tiddly-um-tum-tum the band,
Narrow minds appreciate
The greatest show in the land.
A hush befalls the bigtop,
Then drumrolls, the shouts of more,
The spectacle isn't over;
"This is what we've been waiting for!"
Into the ring Mr. Ridicule,
The funniest man you'll see,
Comedy and tragedy,
How sad.......they think he's me.
His painted smile's a grimace,
The humiliation is cruel,
The taunts he wears with gratitude
For always being the fool.
Children sit in the audience
Laughing at what they fear most
Dressed in their Sunday best,
Their faces white as a ghost.
Applause, applause, applause
How hilarious his disguise,
To all the world the joker,
Inside........his heart has died.
Slapstick and squirty flowers
Are all just pies in the face,
He exits in a puff of smoke
Yet leaves no worldly trace.
The show is winding down,
Soon to be leaving town,
Memories of extravaganza
But not for the circus clown.
The flattened, browning grass
Where the big-top stood so proud,
The tombstone of a broken man,
Safe from the madding crowd.
Copyright © Robert Horton | Year Posted 2015
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